Friday, March 18, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Reid, Ensign pursue inquiry into Yucca project allegations

WASHINGTON -- Nevada senators Thursday petitioned the Justice Department to launch their own investigation into allegations that government employees fabricated work relating to the Yucca Mountain Project.

In a letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and FBI Director Robert Mueller, the Nevadans requested immediate action be taken to "preserve and protect" records related to government's bid to store 77,000 tons of nuclear waste at the site, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

The request by Sens. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and John Ensign, R-Nev., comes a day after the departments of Energy and Interior admitted that two workers at the U.S. Geological Survey had falsified documents with studies on water penetration into Yucca Mountain.

The issue is a key component of the Bush administration's case that nuclear waste stored at Yucca Mountain would be safe for at least 10,000 years.

Fabricated data regarding possible water seepage into Yucca Mountain could delay further the troubled project or perhaps kill the repository site, critics said.

"Given the magnitude of human health and safety implications of the YMP, we hope that you will act decisively on this request," the senators wrote.

Reid and Ensign requested that records such as memos, reports, e-mails, models, documents and correspondences be gathered from the departments of Energy and Interior.

They said the net should be cast to the Environmental Protection Agency, contractors, industry and other government and private stakeholders associated with the project.

Announcements made yesterday "called into question the quality, validity and integrity of the scientific review and quality assurance processes" of the nuclear waste project, the senators wrote.

Nevada Attorney General Brian Sandoval sent Gonzales a letter Thursday demanding that the Energy Department immediately make all e-mails available about the falsification matter and that the Yucca Mountain database be secured "to protect it from further manipulation."

"To the extent fraudulent activity has occurred, no one connected with the project should be allowed access to the very data being investigated," Sandoval wrote.

Meanwhile, Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., said the Department of Energy should cease all operations at Yucca Mountain until the scientific evidence and studies in question have been reviewed.

"I fully support shutting down Yucca Mountain until all these questions are investigated and restudied," Gibbons said.

Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., sent a letter to Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman that requested he appoint an independent investigation to look into the problem.

Justice Department spokesman Ben Porritt declined to comment.

"I can't confirm receipt of the letter, nor can I confirm any investigation or any pending investigation," Porritt said.

In Las Vegas, the U.S. Geological Survey's branch chief, Bob Craig, said the alleged fabrication dealt with processing of data that were plugged into computer models of how surface water will move through the mountain under future climate conditions.

The models try to calculate how much of a dose the public would receive and when from radioactive particles carried by water from corroding waste containers.

Asked whether the data are in question or the quality-assurance documents that trace its validity, a spokeswoman for the Geological Survey's headquarters in Reston, Va., said, "We're hoping of course it's the documentation and not the data."

"The appearance of impropriety is certainly loud and clear regardless of which it is," said the spokeswoman, A.B. Wade.

She said investigators are focusing on fewer than 20 e-mails that were sent about six years ago between a Geological Survey employee and the employee's supervisor who both work in one of the survey's offices in California.

The e-mails were copied to "seven or eight" others, Wade said.

She said the Energy Department alerted the Interior Department to the problem on Monday.

Project officials were aware of quality-assurance problems that dealt with verifying data and collecting valid, traceable measurements of Yucca Mountain's geologic features, said Bill Belke, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's on-site representative from 1995 to 2002.

In the seven years he looked over the shoulders of scientists as they studied the mountain, Belke often warned about sloppy record keeping. He said the Geological Survey scientists had the highest degree of mishaps and errors.

"A lot of it was carelessness, lack of checks and balances, lack of paying attention to details. They were always in a hurry to get the job done without double-checking," he said Thursday.

Although most of the errors were minor items in scientific notebooks, they did not bode well for the integrity of the project over the long term, he said.

"If you can't do the little things right now, what confidence do you have that they'll do the big things right later?" he asked.

The problems, Belke said, were "due to the lack of accountability, including DOE management."

USGS chief Chip Groat on Wednesday emphasized the severity of the situation to his some 10,000 agency workers in an e-mail obtained by the Review Journal.

"It is all of our jobs to safeguard that reputation through strict adherence to strong science ethics," he wrote. "I take these charges seriously and I will do everything to ensure that we continue to maintain our reputation for scientific excellence and credibility."

Wade said no disciplinary action has been taken against the two workers. Virginia-based attorney Joe Egan, Nevada's lead nuclear waste lawyer, said his office has formed a team of experts to sort through e-mails written by USGS workers in the quality-assurance area under question by the Energy Department.

Egan said he has documents showing that quality inspectors in 2000 reviewed USGS work from 1997 and 1998 and "uncovered dozens and dozens of deficiencies and outright fabrications." He declined to share the paperwork until it can be verified.

"We have documents suggesting they calibrated equipment that was not yet on site," Egan said. "This isn't just a few mistaken dates."

Depending on what investigators find, Egan said, the government might need to go back and redo scientific studies that were part of the site characterization completed to win congressional approval of the project in 2002.

If scientific studies are redone, Egan said, Congress might need to vote on the project again.