Saturday, April 26, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Yucca auditors removed

Examiners issued 'stop work' order

WASHINGTON -- Three examiners were removed from their audit positions after they uncovered new quality control flaws in the Yucca Mountain Project last month, according to one of the examiners and other sources.

Their efforts resulted in the Energy Department issuing a "stop work" order in March to its main Yucca contractor, Bechtel SAIC, until problems are fixed. A DOE spokesman said Friday the flaws involve the formation of program procedures and are not expected to slow the project.

But others said stop work orders are rare and signify important errors. They said the latest problems were symptomatic of quality control troubles that DOE has struggled with for years as it develops a nuclear waste repository 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

A month after DOE issued its "stop work" order, members of the surveillance team, employed by contractor Navarro Research and Engineering Inc., were told they were being removed from audit and verification duties, said one of the workers, Don Harris.

"The schedule appeared to be more important than the quality of the work," said Harris, who believes his removal was linked to the audit. He has asked an internal DOE board to investigate and has passed on concerns to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

A 14-year Navarro employee, Harris said he was told April 9 he was being removed from verification activities "because I made grievance statements about DOE in a meeting" March 18 involving the auditors and a Bechtel team discussing the stop work order. Harris said Robert Hasson, Navarro's project manager for Yucca Mountain, told him Friday he was being returned to his old duties.

Hasson did not respond to messages, and a spokesman could not be reached at Navarro's headquarters in Oak Ridge, Tenn.

Harris and three other sources said George Harper, who was brought over from another Navarro program group to assist the surveillance team, also was removed from verification duties.

Additionally, the sources said, verification manager Lester Wagner, who oversaw the surveillance team, was pressured into a reassignment.

Wagner did not respond to a voice mail request. Harper could not be located.

No action was taken on a fourth member of the surveillance team, Kristi Hodges.

DOE spokesman Alan Benson said Friday that federal managers played no role in any job action involving the auditors. "Their removal had nothing to do with the stop work order. This was between them and Navarro," he said.

The audit uncovered flaws in how Bechtel managers were updating "quality assurance" procedures for parts of the nuclear waste disposal program.

The "stop work" order remains in effect while Bechtel corrects procedures, Benson said. In the meantime, he said, previously approved procedures are being utilized and there has been "no effect as a practical matter."

Others said the episode illustrates ongoing Yucca Mountain quality control problems.

"This one is critical because DOE has had problems with the QA program since Day One, and they've been promising in the past 20 years to fix them," said Susan Lynch, administrator for technical programs in the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects.