Yucca Mountain News Clips
Friday, May 9, 2003
---------------------------

Las Vegas Review-Journal
Friday, May 09, 2003

YUCCA COMPLAINTS: Settlement costs sound alarm

Fired employees worried about quality assurance

By KEITH ROGERS
© Copyright 2003, REVIEW-JOURNAL

Yucca Mountain Project contractors have paid out hundreds of thousands of dollars to settle actions brought by fired employees who were concerned about quality assurance at the proposed nuclear waste burial site.

One of the settlements was for nearly $300,000, according to documents obtained through a Review-Journal Freedom of Information Act request. The other, made in February, was for an undisclosed amount of money.

But a lead auditor for a contractor on the project estimated the total amount of money spent in the cases to be "millions." Documents indicate a large portion would have come from the coffers of the Department of Energy, which wants to entomb 77,000 tons of high level nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

The auditor, Kristi Hodges, based the cost estimate on the amount paid in settlements, attorneys fees, time spent by government lawyers and funds paid to private, legal advisers on the cases.

Hodges also said in interviews this week she had alerted the Department of Energy Inspector General's staff two years ago to allegations of corruption and personnel problems in the quality assurance program but an investigation never materialized.

Hodges said while Yucca Mountain Project officials raced to complete site recommendation work for Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, the quality assurance team was so inundated with responding to allegations that addressing deficiencies in computer models, software and data took a back seat.

"It was keeping us away from doing our jobs more than anything," she said about one of the legal actions.

Hodges' revelations come as Nevada's senators prepare for a May 28 hearing in Las Vegas to address problems with the Yucca Mountain Project's quality assurance program.

In interviews this week, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., said the new information reinforces their concerns that project funds have been misspent.

"My reaction is we've wasted billions of dollars constructing an unnecessary facility and now we find that they're paying million of dollars in hush money, all to the detriment of the taxpayers," Reid said.

Ensign said, "There is the potential for some very serious violations that could potentially affect the quality of the program at Yucca Mountain and we need to get to the bottom of it."

He said if there is any appearance of cover-up or any problem with the project that "could harm the public safety, we'd take that very, very seriously."

Hodges led key audits of the Yucca Mountain Project including one that dealt with modeling the performance of the planned repository.

She first complained to the Inspector General's hot line in writing on Oct. 15, 2001. She then mailed documents to the Inspector General's office to support her claims five other times through January 2002.

"It's as if I don't exist," she said in an interview.

The corruption, she said, involved a system for fielding employee concerns. The so-called Concerns Program was set up so that workers could express their views on personnel matters and technical shortcomings with the Yucca Mountain Project without fear of retaliation.

One concern dealt with the firing of David Mitchell, an employee for Mactec Inc., a Colorado-based subcontractor. He wrote a letter to the company and Hodges' co-worker, James Mattimoe, a program manager for Science Applications International Corp., the Energy Department's quality assurance contractor at the time.

In that letter, Mitchell made allegations of harassment, theft and wrongdoing by the quality assurance team. Later, he revised the allegations to include a claim that Mattimoe's auditor certification was bogus.

In the end, both Mitchell and Mattimoe brought complaints against their former employers and benefitted through the settlements.

A Labor Department report states that Mitchell was fired from Mactec Inc. for "exhibiting hostile behavior towards a supervisor." He filed a complaint claiming he was wrongfully terminated for other reasons, but a Labor Department investigator found no merit to his case and recommended it be dismissed.

But rather than submitting to a hearing in which Mitchell's false allegations would have been aired, Mactec on Aug. 27, 2001, reached an out-of-court settlement for which the Department of Energy agreed to reimburse Mactec.

A new document obtained through the Review-Journal's Freedom of Information Act appeal shows that the Yucca Mountain Project contractor at the time, Science Applications International Corp., paid Mactec $294,521.86 for legal and settlement costs in the Mitchell case.

Mattimoe was fired on Aug. 24, 2001, three days before the settlement.

Under a whistle-blower law, Mattimoe filed a wrongful termination complaint against his former employer, Navarro Research and Engineering, which had taken over the Science Applications quality assurance contract. Last year, Labor Department officials ordered Navarro to reinstate Mattimoe, expunge his personnel file and reimburse him for costs incurred.

Navarro initially pressed for an appeal, but ultimately agreed to settle out-of-court with Mattimoe on Feb. 26, his attorney, Sangeeta Singal, confirmed this week. The settlement amount is confidential.

Allen Benson, an Energy Department spokesman for the Yucca Mountain Project, now known as the Office of Repository Development, said the agency was not a party to either settlement. He declined further comment.

Hodges said the Concerns Program was corrupt because documents about its investigations show witness interviews had been fabricated.

According to Hodges, project officials hired lawyers at significant expense to write a report that ultimately led to Mattimoe's firing.

The government had a contract to pay a Washington, D.C., firm Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, LLP, up to $500,000 to conduct an independent review of specific allegations and concerns, according to documents received by the Review-Journal. But a Labor Department probe into Mattimoe's wrongful termination complaint found that the law firm's report "was not more than a sophisticated recitation of anonymous charges."

Hodges said Mattimoe was never given a chance to refute the allegations that led to his firing. In the last binder Hodges sent to the Office of Inspector General, on Jan. 22, 2002, she urged the office to be independent in its review of her concerns. If it couldn't, she said, the "honorable thing" to do would be to pass the matter on to a higher authority. When the Review-Journal sought copies last year of documents from binders that Hodges mailed to the staff of DOE Inspector General Gregory H. Friedman, his principal deputy, Herbert Richardson sent a letter back, saying, "The OIG neither confirms nor denies the existence of any such records described in your request."

In December, the Review-Journal appealed, sending a Privacy Act release signed by Hodges.

This week, a spokeswoman for the Office of Inspector General, Wilma Slaughter, said the office intends to process the request "as expeditiously as possible."

Asked why an investigation into Hodges's claims never materialized, Slaughter said, "We have no comment on whether we would investigate a matter or not."

Nevada's Nuclear Projects Agency chief Bob Loux, an outspoken critic of the Yucca Mountain Project, said quality assurance issues have raised questions about the validity of 20 years of scientific data about the repository site and whether the data can be verified for a belated licensing review by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff at the end of 2004.

"No one believes they would be going through these exercises, attacking employees who raised quality assurance concerns if, in fact, they had a good scientific program at Yucca Mountain that was valid," Loux said Wednesday.

He referred to an action last month in which three Navarro examiners were removed from their audit positions after they uncovered new quality control flaws in the project.

Regarding corruption in the Concerns Program, Hodges said, "Until these issues are appropriately investigated and addressed, it will be difficult to trust the project."

---------------------------

Las Vegas Review-Journal
May 09, 2003

Yucca layoffs possible as budget cuts loom

By Steve Tetreault
Stephens Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- About 50 to 100 workers face possible layoffs this summer as the Energy Department continues to struggle with funding for the Yucca Mountain Project, a DOE official said Thursday.

Additionally, managers are considering a "partial shutdown" of the Yucca site 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas to further conserve money, according to Christopher Kouts, acting director of the program's systems analysis office.

Meanwhile, the Energy Department faces new budget problems ahead. The Senate Armed Services Committee approved an amendment Thursday by Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., to take a new bite out of the Yucca budget.

Ensign said the committee cut the Pentagon's annual contribution to the nuclear waste program by $70 million as it began writing its annual defense authorization bill.

"You just try to mess with it where you can," Ensign said of the Yucca budget, which Congress has reduced from proposed DOE levels each of the past nine years.

Yucca Mountain Project job reductions in July or August could amount to about 10 percent of the program staff, or 50 to 100 workers, Kouts told a National Academy of Sciences radioactive waste study board.

He said announcements on site restrictions would be forthcoming.

Yucca spokesman Allen Benson said later that layoff decisions are premature, but they are being considered as part of an economizing effort.

Benson said tours will likely be restricted, as well as access to some alcoves in the exploratory tunnel and certain other parts of the site.

Scientists continue to collect data from experiments being conducted on Yucca Mountain, but program managers have said there are portions of the site that can be restricted without affecting ongoing studies and the priority of filing a repository license.

Energy Department officials have said they need Congress to fully fund $591 million this year if they have any hope to maintain a December 2004 goal to complete a license application for a Yucca Mountain repository.

A DOE spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.

The Defense Department's contribution for 2004 was proposed to be $430 million, but the Senate bill cuts that to $355 million. Ensign said the savings were directed to DOE accounts that repair aging buildings, including some slated for refurbishment at the Nevada Test Site.

The Yucca Mountain Project is part of the defense budget because the Pentagon has committed to paying for part of the repository to store military nuclear waste.

Other parts of the Yucca program are paid by utility ratepayers through a special fund whose spending is routed by Congress through the Energy Department. In total, the Bush administration wants lawmakers to allocate $591 million for Yucca Mountain in fiscal 2004.

Last year, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., persuaded committee leaders to cut $100 million from the Defense Department's Yucca fund. That money was restored later in the year, however.

This year, Ensign has a new assignment as a member of the Armed Services Committee and a defense bill negotiator. "We'll wait and see" if the budget cut is sustained, he said.

---------------------------

Las Vegas Review-Journal
May 09, 2003

Waste shipping debate examines Baltimore tunnel fire

Nevada: Such an accident involving nuclear waste would endanger public

By Steve Tetreault
Stephens Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- When a freight train carrying hazardous fuels derailed and caught fire inside a downtown Baltimore tunnel in July 2001, the accident immediately got woven into debate over whether nuclear waste could be transported safely to Yucca Mountain in Nevada.

In the months afterwards, the state of Nevada and the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission performed studies to determine what would have happened had the train been carrying nuclear waste.

Their conclusions differed.

A state analysis concluded that a cask carrying radioactive spent fuel would have been breached by temperatures inside the Howard Street Tunnel. Escaping radioactive particles would have contaminated 32 square miles, increased the chances of cancer deaths for up to 28,000 people and cost $13.7 billion to clean up, consultants said.

At the conclusion of its study, a team headed by NRC analysts said a nuclear waste canister would have endured the fire, "and the health and safety of the public would have been maintained."

At the end of a three-hour meeting that dissected the Baltimore tunnel fire on Thursday, the sides remained no closer to consensus.

"The issue, I believe, is still largely open," said Robert Halstead, principal transportation consultant to the state of Nevada. "It seems to me there are specific differences of opinion about the performance of the cask that was evaluated."

While the studies might not settle the question, officials said they are yielding useful information as nuclear waste shipping campaigns slowly take shape.

Halstead said Nevada leaders plan to weigh data from the Baltimore studies for recommendations on how the NRC could update fire safety tests for cask designs that would be utilized to transport radioactive spent fuel to Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

NRC team leader Christopher Bajwa said the agency plans to examine the endurance of other cask designs to conditions modeled from the Baltimore fire.

NRC officials described their effort as the most comprehensive that could have been undertaken, incorporating studies from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the Center for Nuclear Waste Regulatory Analyses.

In the accident, a tanker car carrying about 28,600 gallons of the flammable solvent tripropylene ruptured in the derailment and burned, paralyzing downtown Baltimore on July 18, 2001. Nevada leaders seized comparisons to nuclear waste.

Two months after the accident, Marvin Resnikoff, a physicist and Nevada nuclear waste consultant, performed analysis based on information about the duration and severity of the fire, previous studies and performance specifications of steel and steel-lead shipping casks.

Assuming fire temperatures at 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit in the tunnel, he concluded the steel and lead cask would have failed after 6.3 hours while the monolithic steel cask would have failed after 11 to 12.5 hours.

NRC simulations suggested that maximum temperatures were not maintained for long periods or evenly through the tunnel, said Kevin McGrattan, a fire modeling specialist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

"This accident may not be considered the worst case," McGrattan said.

Conservative modeling indicated it would have taken at least a day and a half of fire exposure to cause the cask to reach failure, said Harold Adkins of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

Resnikoff said Nevada will be updating its analysis as it gains access to detailed data compiled by the NRC and its contractors.

Challenging NRC's analysis of cask performance, Resnikoff said he sticks by his conclusions of his original study. "If anything, they were too conservative," he said.

---------------------------

Las Vegas SUN
May 09, 2003

Where I Stand -- Brian Greenspun: The object of contempt

Brian Greenspun is editor of the Las Vegas Sun.

Overstepping bounds that bode not well for Nevadans.

There were two stories this week -- one involving the federal government and its disdain for Nevada and the other dealing with Nevadans and their disdain for one another -- that point out a growing danger that threatens one of the last great states in this union and one to which most of us have become very much attached.

In order of importance, the first story dealt with Nevada's lawyers filing another lawsuit against President George W. Bush's federal government for singling out the Silver State for burial duty of the nation's high-level nuclear waste.

It is not the first suit the legal team has filed in its Man of La Mancha-style quest to stop the federal juggernaut from destroying all that Nevada has created and, hopefully, it won't be the last. The theory being that if we throw enough legal theorems against the wall, something might stick.

But the simplicity of this latest claim is what is intriguing and it may provide the key to allowing judges who are reluctant to mess with the power in Washington the courage to just say no. After all, when we have truth, justice and the American way on our side, we have an outside chance that right will win out.

It has been frustratingly difficult to put into words the overwhelming sense of oppression I have felt about the way in which the Congress and, especially, this president have forced themselves on the people of Nevada. They have determined that all that is bad in the world must be contained and that Nevada is the only place where that can happen, regardless of the harm it will do to the people who live here.

It has been even more frustrating to listen to many in President Bush's local chorus give him cover for his lying to us and his refusal to deal with fact over the fiction his power industry friends are feeding him in their determination to make Nevada the nuclear waste dump of the nation.

Now come Nevada's lawyers who say simply that the Constitution of the United States does not allow the government to run roughshod over the sovereign rights of a state full of Americans. I know it is a novel concept -- that we pay attention to the Constitution -- but the Founding Fathers knew a thing or two about royal decrees, and they were dead set against being door-matted by their fellow Americans just because the others had the political muscle to do it.

Their argument is rooted in the principles of state sovereignty, the bounds of federalism and the value of the 10th Amendment. In a world without political and financial considerations -- remember, that's the world the judiciary is supposed to live in -- the argument rings true.

So much for President Bush's dismissive attitude of Nevadans. What about our attitude toward each other?

The other story was a follow-up to Sen. John Ensign's decision to recommend Sen. Harry Reid's son, Leif, to the president to fill an upcoming federal court vacancy. Apparently Leif was one of four names that Sen. Ensign has proffered to the White House.

Even though Reid the younger is probably as qualified as most candidates for the lifetime position, his age notwithstanding, the likelihood of the political machine in the White House ever giving consideration to a Democrat, who just happens to be the son of the second-in-command for the Democrats in the U.S. Senate, seems remote.

Stranger things have happened and if the president advanced Leif's name to the Senate for confirmation it would be a credit to Sen. Ensign for having the courage to propose him and it would be a credit to Nevadans who would benefit in the future from a person with the intelligence and temperment needed for judicial service.

That is not, however, how some Nevadans, to their great discredit, feel.

We have witnessed for too long the yelling, screaming and downright ugly displays of acrimony across the political divide known as the aisle in the Senate and in the House of Representatives. It is downright unbecoming and detrimental to the long-term health of our democracy.

So, finally, when one of our senators reaches across the aisle to do the admirable and, according to Sen. Ensign, the responsible thing, he gets hammered by members of his own party. And why?

Not because Leif isn't qualified but because his father is a Democrat and is Harry Reid. And these folks are so steamed that they plan to work and vote against Sen. Ensign the next time out.

Forget the sheer stupidity of such an emotional tantrum. The uglier message is that Nevadans still aren't mature enough to handle this thing called democracy and the notion of civility that must be a vital component if it is to work.

It is not that I don't know which is worse -- clearly, the president's disdain for Nevada is far more worrisome -- but when we act out so childishly as some have against Sen. Ensign, we send the worst kind of message to the next generation, which is already growing up more cynical than most people thought possible.

If we must disdain, do so against those who do us wrong. Praise those who do what is right. If you don't know which is which, I am sorry. What about our attitude toward each other?

---------------------------

Las Vegas Mercury
May 09, 2003

Cover story: High and dry

Lincoln County ends water war with Las Vegas--but residents call it a sellout

By Heidi Walters

"Water is the true wealth in a dry land; without it land is worthless or nearly so. And if you control the water, you control the land that depends on it." -- Wallace Stegner

PIOCHE--The air inside the Silver Café this cold April morning carries the faint scent of carrion. A family sits at a table, trapped in a flood of sunlight coming in the window. The cook, trailed by a cloud of steam, clunks plates of food on the ledge between the dining room and kitchen. The waitress, in her black restaurant T-shirt, moves from the ledge to the tables and back to the counter. The coffee's hot, the biscuits and gravy gratifying.

Two old cattlemen sit at the end of the counter by the kitchen window, their sand-colored hats traditional, their jeans worn, their boots crusty with dried mud and their bright-colored Western shirts flashy with intricate patterns and pearl snap buttons. Heads bent in toward each other, they talk in that comforting low-key rumble of old friends sorting out the week's news. It's no doubt meatier fare than the uninspired writings of the local paper, the weekly Lincoln County Record, a copy of which can be had from a tin bucket on the counter if you drop a quarter in.

Still, the Record's April 24 edition paints a fair enough picture of Lincoln County as it sits today--4,200 people in 10,635 square miles (98.2 percent of which is public land), 150 miles north of Las Vegas and wishing it was about as many years back in time. The top story says the U.S. Department of Energy's just cut in half the $800,000 it gives the county each year to conduct independent studies of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump. The other story says the County Commission's holding a public hearing on its draft habitat conservation plan, a document that will enable development in the county.

Let's look inside: There's the "Caliente Chit Chat," of course. Calls for entries in the fair book cover contest, for new kindergarteners to register for school, and for farmers to renew their crop insurance. Oh, the Caliente senior center's menu "What's Cookin'" promises a tasty week--baked chicken on Wednesday! Here's a two-page spread with photos of local kids parading their cows, horses, pigs and sheep at the Clark County Fair. There's a wrap-up of the Easter Bunny's visit, ads for Mardi Gras bashes in Pioche and a Mary Kay ad--"Beauty and brains." The personals section is boring but useful--a bunch of substance abuse meeting notices running the length of the page. There's help wanted--bartender--at the Alamo Club. And it looks like Nurse Jean Lucht is coming to the county next week, and the vet, too.

There's one obituary: John E. Weberg, 62, who was born, and died, in California but who grew up in Caliente "where he enjoyed hunting and fishing." Later in the obit is this: "In 1989 John and [his wife] Bonnie were among the first former Lincoln County residents to make [a] significant donation to the water fight against Las Vegas."

Maybe he died of a broken heart. Because that water fight with Las Vegas is finally over in Lincoln County--officially, as of March 17--and some people say the county's sold them down the river.

That's probably what those two old cowpokes at the counter are talking about. How, after 14 years of fighting off the Las Vegas Valley Water District's attempt to take about every last drop of unallocated groundwater in Lincoln County (and Nye, White Pine and rural Clark counties), the Lincoln County Commission has agreed to quit fighting and to cooperate. In short, Lincoln County and the Las Vegas Valley Water District have divvied up the water rights applications each had filed in Lincoln County and dropped their respective protests. Also, Lincoln County has waived its right to ever again protest, or support any citizen or third party in protesting, the district's water-gathering activities.

This means the Las Vegas Valley Water District and Southern Nevada Water Authority can begin reviving the old dream of building a pipeline across the eastern part of the state to bring more water to the ever-thirsty Clark County metropolis. All they need is to get White Pine County on board now--and they're talking.

But that may not be all those cowboys are discussing. The future also is looking bright for the Lincoln County government's own crafty plan to act on its public-private partnership with Vidler Water Co. to develop and sell water at lucrative prices to big development projects.

Siphoning rural water off to the big city. Selling water--a basic human necessity, a right--for profit. Yep, there's plenty to talk about these days in Lincoln County. More coffee?

---------------------------

Hampton Roads Daily Press
May 9, 2003

Expect more nuclear reactors, GE chief says

CEO says Dominion is one considering construction

By Chris Flores
Daily Press

WASHINGTON -- Dominion Resources, which has taken steps to ease the construction of a new nuclear reactor at its North Anna site outside Richmond, is one of a few companies considering the construction of more nuclear reactors, a power-industry executive said Thursday.

General Electric Power Systems Chief Executive Officer John G. Rice told an industry forum Wednesday that his company was in serious discussions with six electric utilities about building new reactors, and he cited Dominion among the three that are the most serious.

A Dominion spokesman denied that Dominion was in discussions with GE or any other company about building another reactor.

But Dominion, which owns the nuclear Surry Power Station, has shown signs that it's interested in building the first reactor since the Three Mile Island disaster in 1979. Dominion is one of three companies expected to file soon for an early permit to build another reactor.

Federal nuclear regulators have streamlined the permitting process to make it easier for utilities to get a new reactor approved. Once approved, Dominion's application gives it 20 years to build at North Anna. Dominion isn't expected to file a permit to build at Surry.

The two other utilities that Rice named as serious about construction are Kennett Square, Pa.-based Exelon and Atlanta-based Southern Co. Besides Dominion, the two companies that are expected to file this summer for an expedited permit are Exelon and New Orleans-based Entergy.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission estimates it will take about 33 months to get a new nuclear power plant permit approved. Utilities then must get approval for a specific reactor design. The NRC believes it will take about five years from the time of a permit approval to get a plant built and running.

Rice said Thursday that he expects a utility to build a new nuclear plant, but three things must first occur: President Bush must be re-elected, questions about the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste facility must be answered and a utility must convince its investors that building a new reactor is not financially risky.

This report contains material from news services.

Chris Flores can be reached at 247-4738 or by e-mail at cflores@dailypress.com

---------------------------
State of Nevada
Agency for Nuclear Projects
www.state.nv.us/nucwaste/
nwpo@nuc.state.nv.us
775-687-3744
---------------------------