Yucca Mountain News Clips
Tuesday, April 29, 2003
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Las Vegas SUN
April 29, 2003
Editorial: Dismissing nuke dump concerns
LAS VEGAS SUN
Early in March a review team for Navarro Research and Engineering, a contractor on the Yucca Mountain project, found some flaws in work procedures. So the Energy Department's project quality assurance manager issued a stop-work order until the flaws were addressed. Ominously, within about a month's time, three members of the four-member review team were reassigned by the contractor. (One of them who complained about the situation was told Friday he would get his job back.)
It's still unclear just how serious the flaws were that the review team discovered, but what is clear is that the contractor's actions warrant an investigation by Congress and the Energy Department's inspector general. We should find out if these actions were a warning sign to other employees to keep quiet about problems they uncover at the Yucca Mountain project, a program whose credibility has been tarnished because it has failed to seriously address safety concerns involving the transportation and storage of nuclear waste.
There is a certain amount of deja vu in the latest revelation. A Yucca Mountain project quality assurance manager, Jim Mattimoe, was fired in 2001 once he aired his complaints regarding how concerns about the project were handled. Mattimoe, also a Navarro Research and Engineering employee, was vindicated when a Labor Department investigation found that he was wrongly terminated. Bill Belke, a former inspector for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission who worked on-site at the Yucca Mountain project until his retirement last year, told the Sun in a story Monday that worker concerns were ignored in the seven years he was there. Belke doesn't believe the review team's findings are that significant, but he added: "If the DOE can't do the little things right, how can they be expected to do the big things right?" It's just one more indication of why the Yucca Mounta in project would be destined for failure if it ever were to receive a license from the NRC to bury 77,000 tons of nuclear waste in Nevada.
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Reno Gazette-Journal
April 29, 2003
Editorial: Energy Department actions undermining its arguments
The nuclear waste repository at Nevada´s Yucca Mountain long ago left the realm of rational discussion.
Don´t blame the continuing opposition in Nevada, however. Blame Congress, which ensured that there could be no alternative to Yucca Mountain (former Sen. Bennett Johnston´s “Screw Nevada’ bill), and the U.S. Department of Energy, which seems determined to bury any evidence that the site may not meet the criteria that was supposed to determine whether the repository could be built in southern Nevada.
The project has been plagued by conflicts of interest. When it became obvious that some requirements for the project could not be met, the requirements were changed. And now, when a surveillance team for a project contractor has found flaws in quality-control procedures, the team has been told it is no longer needed. DOE stopped work until the problems were fixed, but made sure there wouldn´t be a repeat … by getting rid of the messengers.
“The schedule appeared to be more important than the quality of the work,’ one of the inspectors said, according to a report in the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
That, of course, is exactly what Nevadans have been saying ever since the federal finger was pointed at Nevada. As long as the federal government refuses to take that criticism seriously, there will never be any rational discussion of the Yucca Mountain waste repository.
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Las Vegas SUN
April 28, 2003
Three who found fault with Yucca procedures reassigned
Four-member team said revisions flawed
By Benjamin Grove
<grove@lasvegassun.com>
LAS VEGAS SUN
WASHINGTON -- The treatment of three members of a Yucca Mountain review team who were removed from their audit jobs after they found project flaws is part of an old and troubling trend, Yucca critics and observers said.
It is common for worker concerns about the project to be ignored, said Bill Belke, who retired last year as the on-site Yucca inspector for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The NRC will be responsible for licensing the project and NRC officials are keeping close tabs on the project's development.
"I have seen many times when issues are put aside or dismissed," Belke said. "People have to fight to get things documented."
Critics say the most recent example centered on three members of a four-member Yucca "quality assurance" review team. The team, from Yucca contractor Navarro Research and Engineering, uncovered a number of flaws in the Yucca work procedures that were being revised by the project's top contractor, Bechtel SAIC.
The team's findings prompted the Energy Department project's quality assurance director, R. Dennis Brown, on March 4 to issue a stop-work order on the procedures revision until the flaws were addressed.
On April 9, project managers reassigned team member Don Harris after 14 years of work as a Yucca auditor, Harris said. Harris said he was struck with "disbelief" when he was given other duties "cleaning up old paperwork," he said.
Two other members, Lester Wagner and George Harper, were reassigned, said Harris and one other source close to the project who spoke on the condition of anonymity. No action was taken against a fourth team member, Kristi Hodges.
Belke, who stays in contact with project workers and who spoke last week to two of the review team members, also confirmed that Wagner, Harper and Harris were reassigned.
In this case, the review team's findings that led to the stop-work order do not seem significant, Belke said. The stop-work order is not expected to slow the Energy Department's work at Yucca, or its goal to submit by December 2004 an application for a license to construct Yucca.
"But the point is: If the DOE can't do the little things right, from the NRC's perspective, how can they be expected to do the big things right?" Belke said.
The Yucca project, a plan to ship the nation's most radioactive waste to the mountain site for permanent burial, is still in early development stages, Belke noted, as managers wrap up studies and gather data for the license application.
Dismissing worker concerns will become a lot more serious when the project is operational and nuclear waste is actually being moved into the mountain repository, Belke said.
"This creates a chilling effect on the project," Belke said. "People are afraid of retaliation and retribution. It's unhealthy. And it's not good for the program."
Nevada officials said they were concerned the reassignment of workers mirrored another case in which a Yucca quality assurance reviewer, Jim Mattimoe, was fired after he complained about how project concerns were handled. A Labor Department review later found Mattimoe had been unfairly terminated.
"It shows that the Department of Energy is more concerned with going headlong forward with Yucca Mountain, without regard to questions about quality and safety," said Amy Spanbauer spokeswoman for Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev.
Nevada lawmakers returned to Washington today after a two-week break, and they plan to "find out what kind of actions we can take," Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., said.
"We're going to follow this very closely," said Michael O'Donovan, spokesman for Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev.
Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., is concerned about the reassignments and is "looking at options to respond," spokeswoman Tessa Hafen said.
Nevada officials are concerned the Energy Department is not paying close attention to details, said Bob Loux, director of the Nevada Nuclear Projects Agency.
"It's been going on for some time that when someone tries to bring bad news or concerns to someone at the top that they basically get thrown aside," Loux said.
"It seems to us that problems with the quality assurance program are symptomatic of the bigger problems."
Harris said he and his colleagues were reassigned because their findings put a spotlight on important flaws in Yucca procedures.
A written statement released by Navarro said that within the last month "concerns were raised by others against our employees regarding unprofessional behavior in a meeting." Harris had been counseled about using foul language in meetings, the statement said. Harris was removed -- temporarily -- from his job while a Navarro program manager at Yucca Mountain investigated the concerns about the Navarro employees, the statement by Jeff Salyers, Navarro director of business operations said.
The investigation found the concerns were "not adequately substantiated." On Friday, Harris was given his old job back.
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Las Vegas SUN
April 28, 2003
Sun's Grove wins major journalism award
LAS VEGAS SUN
The Las Vegas Sun's Washington reporter, Benjamin Grove, has won top honors in the Society of Professional Journalist's annual Sigma Delta Chi Awards for his work reporting from the nation's capital.
Grove's coverage of the battle in Washington last year over the proposed nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain won him a first prize in the contest's Washington correspondence category.
The Energy Department and President Bush designated the site 90 miles north of Las Vegas for the proposed repository, Gov. Kenny Guinn vetoed the decision and Congress overrode the governor. The Energy Department still must get clearance from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission before beginning construction of the dump, which is scheduled to open in 2010, but the state has launched numerous court challenges to try to halt the project.
"It's a David versus Goliath story and Benjamin Grove is a proficient storyteller," the judges wrote. "In analyzing and explaining the potential dangers should the federal government's plans come to fruition, Grove assures that readers are getting the whole picture. He truly does bring this story home to the residents of Nevada.
"Covering the story from nearly every conceivable angle, Grove keeps Nevada residents informed about lawmakers' decisions; the only way Nevada could be more informed is if the population packed up and moved to Washington."
Grove's work beat out entries from the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Associated Press, The Christian Science Monitor, Houston Chronicle and others.
The Sigma Delta Chi Awards are the second-oldest prizes for excellence in journalism, behind the Pulitzer Prize. In the 2002 contest Grove was among 49 winners from more than 1,300 entries in newspaper, magazine, television, radio and Internet media. The awards will be presented in July in Washington.
Last year, Grove was named co-journalist of the year by the Nevada Press Association for his work covering Yucca Mountain.
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State of Nevada
Agency for Nuclear Projects
www.state.nv.us/nucwaste/
nwpo@nuc.state.nv.us
775-687-3744
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