Tuesday, June 07, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

YUCCA MOUNTAIN: DOE: Water flow studies sound

Accuracy of information called into question by e-mails in which scientists discussed falsifying documents

WASHINGTON -- The Energy Department has tentatively concluded that Yucca Mountain water flow studies were technically sound, even though scientists who conducted them had discussed falsifying quality control documents, a DOE executive said Monday.

Auditors discovered "the majority -- about 80 percent" of the problems in 1999 and 2000, shortly after the research was completed by U.S. Geological Survey hydrologists, according to John Arthur, Yucca Mountain deputy director.

Further, the USGS scientists' findings about how surface water might infiltrate cracks toward nuclear waste tunnels were consistent with other research conducted on the mountain, Arthur said.

"The net infiltration estimates are technically defensible," Arthur said at a Yucca managers' meeting with officials from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in Pahrump. The meeting was telecast to NRC headquarters outside Washington.

But even though the USGS work may be sound, Arthur told the NRC that the data will not be used in an upcoming DOE license request to establish a nuclear waste repository at the Yucca site.

"While the numbers look good, we also recognize they are only as good as the integrity of the individuals that prepared them," Arthur said. "Our action is to make sure we have other individuals and organizations look to make sure the information is either replaced, redone or remediated so it stands up in our license application."

The water infiltration studies were called into question by a cache of e-mails that were made public in March.

The messages, written between 1998 and 2000, include two or three USGS scientists saying that dates and names had been made up, and that "fudge factors" were used to satisfy quality assurance requirements for their research.

Investigations by inspectors general into possible criminal activity were convened. At the same time, DOE has undertaken multiple internal studies to determine whether project science was compromised and to dissect its quality assurance program for Yucca Mountain.

The allegations amounted to another embarrassment for the Yucca project that had been set back by a court ruling last summer and by budget shortfalls on Capitol Hill.

A Yucca Mountain critic said he was not surprised that the Energy Department is finding minimal impact from the e-mail messages.

"It was going to be a whitewash from square one," said Bob Loux, director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects. "We predicted how this was going to look when they announced their investigation."

Nevada officials had called for an independent probe of the e-mails. Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., has assigned staff members from his federal work force subcommittee to investigate the messages, but they have announced little progress.