Wednesday, September 14, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

DOE moves to boot agency

Proposed cuts follow disclosure of Yucca e-mails

WASHINGTON -- Months after the discovery of scientist e-mails critical of the Yucca Mountain Project, the Energy Department is preparing deep cuts in spending next year for the federal geology agency at the nuclear waste site, officials said.

The cuts essentially could sever ties between DOE and the U.S. Geological Survey at Yucca Mountain, which USGS earth scientists have studied for 26 years.

The timing of the proposal has caught interest in Congress. It follows the disclosure in March that several USGS hydrologists wrote of possibly falsifying quality assurance documents on their Yucca research.

The e-mails, written between 1998 and 2000, rocked both agencies and prompted ongoing investigations by a House subcommittee and inspectors general in the Energy and Interior departments.

USGS officials said they were surprised by DOE's plans, which formed over the summer. There is belief that DOE's decisions were linked to the e-mail controversy, according to three USGS officials who asked not to be identified.

"Obviously we were as disturbed by the e-mails as they were," a USGS executive said. "It is hard to completely separate the two, but we were not anticipating our budget would take this kind of decline."

The Energy Department had no immediate comment Tuesday. Spokesman Allen Benson said Congress has not yet appropriated a Yucca Mountain budget for next year, and it would be premature to speculate how it would be spent.

With the Energy Department shifting emphasis to Yucca Mountain licensing, science work at the site has been tapering. DOE spending on USGS activity has decreased gradually from a high of $31.5 million in fiscal 1995 to $8.7 million this year, according to budget documents.

In an Aug. 30 letter, USGS Associate Director Robert Hirsch said the agency was told by DOE and Yucca Mountain management firm Bechtel SAIC that it should expect an 89 percent cut in its 2006 work funding, to $940,000.

The budget projections place USGS's work "in great jeopardy," Hirsch said in the letter to Paul Golan, DOE deputy director of the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management.

"This effectively would end our Yucca Mountain project," USGS Communications Director Barbara Wainman said. "This has been a long-standing relationship. We were anticipating being on the project through the licensing process."

USGS personnel monitor water and precipitation at the Yucca site, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, take part in studies of natural characteristics that could corrode waste canisters, and have been working on revised peak radiation dose calculations that would be required by the Environmental Protection Agency, Wainman said.

Scientists also provide technical support on Nye County nuclear waste studies, she said.

The USGS has alerted federal lawmakers in Nevada and Colorado, where workers would be affected by the proposed cuts.

The lawmakers began reacting Tuesday.

Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., asked Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman in a letter to explain the proposal and how DOE planned to replace the USGS.

"At a time when the integrity of the science and overall technical process surrounding the Yucca Mountain Project is being called into question, how can the DOE ensure that the scientific process meant to assure public safety will not be compromised by such a drastic budget cut?" Gibbons wrote.

"I question eliminating nearly all funding for work by the USGS, given the role that they have played in performing scientific assessments and the knowledge base that exists within the agency," said Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev.

Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., chairman of a subcommittee investigating the e-mails, said he has asked to meet with Hirsch "to get to the bottom of this."

"DOE is remaining true to their standard operating procedure: Never let good science get in the way of a bad project," said Tessa Hafen, spokeswoman for Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev.

Authors of the controversial e-mails remain employed at USGS. They have been removed from Nevada work.

A primary e-mail author, hydrologist Joseph Hevesi, told Porter's subcommittee at a hearing in June that he did not falsify documents and his criticism of the project was "water cooler talk."

DOE managers authorized an internal probe to dissect work that Hevesi and others associated with the e-mail had performed. The investigation has tentatively concluded repository science was not compromised, but officials have said the scientists' work would be redone in any case to increase confidence.

Hirsch and USGS Director Patrick Leahy were scheduled to meet with DOE counterparts on Sept. 19 to discuss funding and the e-mail controversy. Wainman said DOE recently indicated it might increase spending on USGS work above the $940,000 amount.

USGS workers assigned to Yucca Mountain have been told they might be laid off or transferred. Forty-six federal workers and contractor employees are based in Denver while eight are in Nevada.

"As we move into the nuclear licensing process, over a third of the data sets that have been used in the science to support Yucca Mountain, and that DOE will be using in its license application, are USGS data," Wainman said. "This is pretty serious when you think about losing all the institutional knowledge and expertise needed to defend that work."