Wednesday, July 28, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Panel hears complaints about Yucca database

Nuclear repository documents unavailable, Nevada critics say

WASHINGTON -- Energy Department attorneys faced tough questioning Tuesday on DOE's handling of an electronic document database for the Yucca Mountain Project.

Three administrative judges challenged the department's work to gather millions of documents and make them available on the Internet in preparation for licensing hearings on the proposed nuclear waste repository.

The panel could force delays in DOE's licensing bid as it rules on a complaint from Nevada that the licensing support network is riddled with problems. The Energy Department says it plans to submit an application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission at the end of the year.

The judges, gathered by the NRC, did not say how they would rule, but they pointedly quizzed DOE lawyers during a 4 1/2-hour hearing. A decision could come within weeks.

The Energy Department certified its licensing support network on June 30, saying at the time it was making available 1.2 million documents totalling 5.6 million pages.

But Nevada officials and other users immediately began complaining of missing documents and said they have had problems accessing what they believed should be available technical reports, studies and e-mails chronicling years of DOE's repository effort.

The Energy Department gave its best effort to construct the database and should not be penalized, said Michael Shebelskie, an attorney with the Hunton & Williams law firm handling DOE licensing.

"The facts will show, and do show, the DOE made a substantial good faith product that was proper and met the requirements," Shebelskie said.

DOE made its documents available on a department Web site while technicians at the NRC continued to index the material onto a central server.

But Joe Egan, an attorney representing Nevada, told hearing officers that problems with the database are widespread. Among other issues, the state contends the DOE Web site cannot be considered an official portal for the documents.

Egan charged the DOE rushed to certify the database before it was ready, a strategy to stay on schedule to meet the year-end application deadline.

Egan said up to 6 million documents, most of them valuable e-mails, are missing. Additionally, he challenged secrecy claimed for up to a million documents that made them unavailable to the public.

"What we have here is a system that is an utter, complete failure," Egan said.

He said if necessary Nevada would file thousands of requests for DOE to produce individual documents not available on the database, which could mire Yucca licensing.

Nevada's complaint appeared to resonate with the judges.

Administrative Judge Alan Rosenthal said the point of the database was to avoid prolonged fights and share documents among participants in Yucca license hearings before they commence.

"Under your system, there certainly are a lot of hiccups, if not worse, down the road," Rosenthal told Shebelskie. "There's a whole lot (DOE) has done that needs explaining."

Rosenthal also questioned why the Energy Department apparently waited until May to begin making documents available to be indexed onto the NRC server.

"DOE obviously foot-dragged," Rosenthal said.

That point was echoed by Judge Thomas Moore, who said, "DOE has had 15 years of advance notice that it had to do this."

Shebelskie said DOE officials believed it was premature to begin spending money on document roundups before Congress ratified the Yucca site in 2002. He also said NRC could not promise to secure documents until recently.

Shebelskie said e-mails that were not included were of marginal significance or were considered archive material not subject to posting.

Moore said, "I am having trouble with your argument in this sense: What is it about the word 'all' that I am missing?"

Egan said e-mails written by Lake Barrett, a senior project manager who retired in 2002, were not available for inspection, as well as messages from current program director Margaret Chu.

Egan said a search for documents on Alloy 22 corrosion, a key topic in repository performance, turned up hits for 9,261 documents, but 4,878 contained only a header code and no text that could be accessed.

A search for the word "party" showed subject lines for dozens of Yucca staff e-mails announcing bachelor parties, pool parties, Hollywood parties, with every one marked as a privileged document that restrict access, Egan said.

Explaining the confusion, Shebelskie said several hundred thousand documents that were flagged by software as containing information subject to security, copyright or privacy restrictions still were being reviewed by project workers.

"Don't you think the full validation should have been done before certification?" asked Alex Karlin, one of the judges.