Editorial: Don’t be fooled by spin

Tuesday, Nov. 28, 2006 | 7:18 a.m.

Accountability isn't a word typically found in the Energy Department, especially when it comes to plans to dump 70,000 tons of nuclear waste 90 miles from Las Vegas at Yucca Mountain.

But Edward Sproat, the administration's point man on Yucca Mountain, used the word last year in his Senate confirmation hearing, saying accountability was one of his guiding values.

Sproat, who was confirmed and took over this summer, should know that was the wrong word.

Continuing its abysmal record on Yucca Mountain, which stretches over two decades, the Energy Department once again won't release documents that would provide a bit of - what's that word again? - accountability.

Gov. Kenny Guinn wrote to Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman earlier this month, calling for a release of more than 2 million documents related to the design and science of the project. The department has been compiling documents that it contends will prove its case for Yucca Mountain and sending them to a database to be used when it asks the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a license to build the nuclear waste dump.

By law, the backup documents are supposed to be online six months before the department submits its license application. Sproat has set Dec. 21, 2007, as the deadline to submit the documents and June 30, 2008, as the license application deadline.

In his letter, Guinn said all it would take is a "flip of a switch" to make public the latest batch of documents, about 30 percent of the new information the department expects to file. If the documents were made public today there wouldn't be enough time to adequately review them, given the complexity of the documents and the number of them, but at least it would give Nevada and the public more time to study and scrutinize the project.

That would be called accountability, which judging by its past, is the last thing the department wants.

The woefully conceived project was approved by President Bush and Congress four years ago, but the Energy Department's first attempt at a licensing application was shot down two years ago when its cache of about 1 million backup documents was deemed inadequate. Some of the documents raised questions about the quality of the science, including references to falsifying work to support the project.

If the department wants to live up to the word of Mr. Sproat, releasing documents would be the least it could do. Otherwise, meet the new boss, same as the old boss.