Tuesday, June 14, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Ex-Yucca scientist to face subpoena

House committee investigating e-mails wants his testimony

WASHINGTON -- A House committee today plans to subpoena a former Yucca Mountain scientist to testify later this month about e-mail messages that discuss document falsification on the nuclear waste project.

The Government Reform Committee will seek to compel Joseph A. Hevesi to appear and bring relevant documents to a June 29 hearing before a federal work force subcommittee headed by Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev.

Porter, who announced the impending subpoena, said the scientist has not responded to requests to be interviewed about the e-mails.

"This is the first subpoena being issued," Porter said. "We had hoped it would not be necessary."

The subpoena and scheduled hearing could breathe new public life into a matter that has been taking place mostly behind the scenes as Porter, a Yucca opponent, seeks to ferret out flaws that might throw sand into the project.

Energy Department official John Arthur said last week that DOE is nearing the end of an internal probe and has tentatively concluded the e-mails have not compromised the project, although the work in question will be redone.

Hevesi, a hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, did not immediately respond to a message left on his home phone Monday evening.

Hevesi has been identified as a principal author of e-mails written between 1998 and 2000 that discuss making up names and dates, keeping two sets of books and using "fudge factors" in documenting quality assurance on their research.

Disclosure of the provocative messages threw a new wrench into the government program that is seeking to develop Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, into a repository for 77,000 tons of highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel.

Porter, a critic of the Yucca project along with most other Nevada elected leaders, initiated an investigation through the House federal work force and agency organization subcommittee he took over this year.

Two other USGS hydrologists who have been identified as e-mail authors, Alan L. Flint and Lorraine E. Flint, have been interviewed in person by subcommittee investigators, according to agency spokeswoman A.B. Wade.

Porter said he does not plan to summon the Flints to the June 29 public hearing. He declined to say whether the couple has been interviewed or to discuss other aspects of the investigation.

Inspectors general for the Energy Department and the Interior Department also are conducting ongoing investigations with help from the FBI. DOE managers are attempting to identify whether any of their decisions based on repository science may have been affected by shortcomings raised in the e-mails.

Other potential witnesses for the hearing have not yet been set, Porter said. He said the Energy Department and the USGS have yet to provide all documents the subcommittee requested for its probe.

Porter and the Energy Department have been unable to agree on a timetable for documents to be produced.

Wade said Monday that USGS on May 16 turned over 766 documents accounting for 2,878 pages on a compact disc. Asked for hard copies, Wade said the agency complied on May 23.

The subcommittee had requested all documents and records, including e-mails, "relating to, identifying, or discussing the falsification and-or fabrication of documents or records" by anyone associated with the repository.

"We have attempted to be responsive," Wade said. "USGS would be willing to provide whatever documents is being requested if we become aware of the specific document or group of documents."

Alan and Lorraine Flint and Hevesi are assigned to the USGS office in Sacramento, Calif. All worked at Yucca Mountain for periods of the 1990s, contributing research and data for computer models that predict how water might infiltrate mountain cracks and pores under varying climate conditions.

Although USGS officials have declined to describe their current projects, Wade said they are not taking part in any work related to Yucca Mountain or any other USGS activities in Nevada.