Count Kristi Hodges among the casualties of so-called "sound science" at the Yucca Mountain Project. For years she toiled as a quality assurance auditor, scrutinizing data compiled to justify the federal government's planned nuclear waste repository northwest of Las Vegas. Last month, she quit.

More than four years ago, she forwarded a complaint to the U.S. Department of Energy's inspector general, the purportedly independent, investigative arm of the federal agency. Ms. Hodges outlined falsified and suppressed certification documents. She also detailed the removal of two quality assurance leaders who uncovered faulty computer modeling that produced flawed data -- and flawed scientific conclusions -- about the suitability of the repository site.

Ms. Hodges' findings raised serious questions about the integrity of a project that had, to that point, cost $7 billion over almost two decades. In June 2002, the Review-Journal requested a copy of the report from the inspector general through the Freedom of Information Act.

The years passed. The Department of Energy refused to publicly acknowledge the allegations. Ms. Hodges went about her business, wondering what became of her exhaustive effort to bring accuracy and a modicum of accountability to the project.

"What I was identifying was absolute corruption in the (employee) concerns program, the management of the project and its continual attacks and retaliation on the quality assurance organization that was identifying deficiencies one right after another," she said Thursday.

In the meantime, other auditors were removed from their jobs after uncovering quality control flaws. The Energy Department issued a stop work order on the project. Congressional hearings were held after e-mail messages revealed a U.S. Geological Survey worker might have fabricated his quality assurance data. Still, no official word on the complaint.

So last month, Ms. Hodges put in her notice of resignation.

Coincidentally, about a week after it became clear Ms. Hodges' employment with the project was at its end, the inspector general's office finally complied with the newspaper's request by delivering a jumbled, heavily redacted copy of the complaint -- and word that no investigation resulted from the complaint.

Instead, the inspector general's office boiled down hundreds of pages to a "two or three page" summary, according to spokeswoman Marilyn Richardson, and forwarded that summary to the very people targeted by the complaint.

"I wanted somebody who was independent to look at this, and they sent it back to somebody who knew darn well where it came from," a furious Ms. Hodges said.

These actions are consistent with the project's operating philosophy. Since the day in 1987 when Congress singled out Nevada for repository studies, leaving no alternative sites under consideration, the "science" of Yucca Mountain has been geared toward keeping the shovels turning.

The Department of Energy has no excuse for sweeping Ms. Hodges' complaint under the rug, nor for ignoring the Review-Journal's request for public information for more than four years. If Yucca Mountain Project officials hope to ever build enough political support to open their repository, they're going to have to show some respect to the people who pay their bills.