WASHINGTON -- Attorneys for the state of Nevada are objecting to an Energy Department decision to withdraw a document related to a whistle-blower from a Yucca Mountain license database.

Nevada lawyer Charles Fitzpatrick said it appeared the department might be trying to hide a damaging document, and he called for it to remain on the electronic network.

A DOE spokesman said the department has nothing to hide. A government lawyer said the document has been deemed irrelevant and in a sharply worded letter said that Nevada officials were misreading the matter and blowing it out of proportion.

The dispute, which surfaced in the last week, may have only limited impact because the document that is being challenged has already been made public, including in news articles the Review-Journal published in 2002 and 2003 on the whistle-blower, James Mattimoe.

But the episode does provide a glimpse at clashes that attorneys are waging behind the scenes as they set the stage for upcoming Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensing hearings for the proposed Nevada nuclear waste repository.

The Licensing Support Network, or LSN, is a key element in preparations for Yucca Mountain hearings. The Internet-accessible database is expected to contain more than 4 million documents generated by the Department of Energy, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the state of Nevada, and other interested parties.

The database will serve as a shared library during Yucca licensing. Most of the material has been generated by the Department of Energy, which spent two decades analyzing the Nevada site for nuclear waste burial.

The Energy Department has withdrawn roughly 65,000 documents from the databank after further reviews revealed coding errors or they were judged to not be germane to licensing.

Most of the deletions have been noncontroversial. But Fitzpatrick called foul this month after Michael Shebelskie, a lawyer for DOE, asked the database administrator to remove, among other documents, reference to a 10-page document whose header indicated it was a Sept. 13, 2002 report concerning Mattimoe.

The Labor Department on Sept. 13, 2002 issued a 10-page ruling critical of actions taken against Mattimoe, who was fired in August 2001 as a quality assurance supervisor by Yucca Mountain contractor Navarro Research and Engineering.

Shebelskie, a lawyer with DOE's licensing law firm Hunton & Williams LLP, later confirmed the documents are the same.

Fitzpatrick called on DOE in a Jan. 18 letter to leave the Mattimoe document on the database.

"We are trying to make a point here that if this was something they decided was relevant, there is something wrong when they go back and decide it is not relevant," Fitzpatrick said in an interview.

"It's the principle of the thing," Fitzpatrick said. "Are they pulling documents off not because they are irrelevant but because they are damaging."

The Energy Department "is not trying to hide anything," spokesman Allen Benson said. "There are rules for placing documents and removing documents from the LSN and we are following the rules."

Shebelskie said in a letter to Fitzpatrick on Wednesday that removal of the document "is appropriate" and that Nevada attorneys were mischaracterizing the matter.

"The issue at hand is whether DOE is required to produce (the document) on the LSN, and the answer to that question is 'no,'" he said. "Your assertion that DOE 'seeks to entirely conceal this document' is unfounded, and you know it."

The Labor Department in the 2002 report supported Mattimoe's claim he was fired for making allegations of wrongdoing in how officials were handling worker concerns about Yucca Mountain problems, including withholding evidence and attributing statements to people who were never interviewed by investigators.

The report ordered Navarro to reinstate Mattimoe, expunge his personnel file and reimburse him for costs.