LAS VEGAS - Nevada Sen. Harry Reid on Friday formally requested an internal Department of Energy investigation into whether federal laws were violated in the drafting of a report that recommends Yucca Mountain as the nation's high-level nuclear waste dump.
Reid, the Senate's assistant Democratic leader, sent a letter to Gregory Friedman, the DOE's inspector general, asking him to investigate the circumstances surrounding the preparation of documents that suggest Yucca Mountain is safe to store the radioactive waste, even though a study of the Nevada site has not been completed.
The Las Vegas Sun obtained a draft of a 60-page DOE overview that comes to that conclusion, as well as a two-page reviewer's note that suggests the overview is designed to help nuclear industry officials sell the Yucca Mountain Project, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, to Congress.
Federal law prohibits the DOE from taking sides during the site selection process.
