Porter committee gets 4,980 more pages in probe

Suzanne Struglinski

Thursday, Sept. 15, 2005 | 11:14 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- The Energy Department delivered an additional 4,980 pages to Rep. Jon Porter's subcommittee Wednesday, to fulfill requirements of a subpoena related to Porter's investigation into possible falsified documents at the Yucca Mountain project.

House Government Reform Committee Chairman Tom Davis, R-Va., issued the subpoena in Jury for 10 sets of documents. The Energy Department delivered some documents by the July 22 deadline but has sporadically turned over documents since then, including 700 pages Friday.

In March the department announced it discovered e-mails sent between U.S. Geological Survey employees that suggest water studies at Yucca may not be correct. Water flow studies are key to determining the mountain's success in protecting people from radiation.

Porter is chairman of the House Federal Workforce and Agency Organization subcommittee, which is examining e-mails and alleged mismanagement at the Energy Department's proposed high-level nuclear waste repository.

Wednesday's compilation included documents involving the potential falsification of documents the department did not originally give the subcommittee and employee records on Joseph Hevesi, Alan Flint and Lorraine Flint, the scientists who wrote the bulk of the e-mails in question.

Porter also received a list of the water infiltration models from 1997 to present and correspondence between the department and the project's main contractor Bectel SAIC regarding the e-mails.

The subcommittee has still not received the department's draft license application that it must submit to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for approval before construction of the repository can begin. The draft is one of the 10 requested items.

Department spokesman Craig Stevens said the department will make more documents available to the committee as it compiles them.

Porter said the department is either not capable of finding the draft application or is withholding documents.

"It actually scares me either way," Porter said.