Nevada senators seek Yucca Mountain probe
Date: 27-Nov-02
Country: USA
Author: JoAnne Allen
Citing safety concerns, Senate Democratic Whip Harry Reid and Republican John Ensign - along with officials from the state - have vehemently opposed the Bush administration's plan to put a permanent nuclear waste repository in the Nevada desert, 90 miles (150 km) northwest of Las Vegas.
In a letter to the General Accounting Office, Reid and Ensign urged congressional investigators to look into reports of alleged mistreatment of quality assurance contractors who questioned the integrity of the scientific process in the Yucca Mountain project.
A spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Energy had no immediate comment.
The senators cited a recent Las Vegas Review-Journal newspaper report which said two workers were removed from their jobs because they had been aggressive in identifying technical deficiencies in the project.
"Once they came forward and identified defects with the science, they were either terminated or relocated," Reid said and in a joint statement with Ensign. "Apparently, these employees were used as an example - 'keep your mouth shut or you'll be removed.'"
Ensign added: "We have project workers who are trying to warn the public about the possible dangers at Yucca Mountain. Now it appears that someone at the Department of Energy may be trying to silence those voices."
Reid and Ensign also asked the GAO to investigate claims made in an anonymous whistle-blower letter they received of a significant loss of scientific data that would be needed to make a licensing determination for the project.
The Energy Department won legislative approval in July to apply to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to license the $58 billion Yucca Mountain repository. The facility is scheduled to open in 2010 and hold 77,000 tons (70,000 metric tonnes) of radioactive material that the Environmental Protection Agency says must be isolated for 10,000 years.
U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham contends that $4 billion in studies over the past 20 years have found Yucca Mountain, which would receive shipments of waste from around the country, would be a safe site.
Backers of the project contend it would be safer to have the waste in one place rather than scattered at facilities nationwide.
But Nevada has refused to concede in an ongoing fight to prevent development of the nuclear waste dump and is pursing three legal challenges.
