Cutbacks, funding issues raised about Yucca Mountain nuclear dump

LAS VEGAS -- The Energy Department said Friday that layoffs might be needed to save money at the Nevada site picked for a national nuclear waste dump, even as a newspaper reported that hundreds of thousands of dollars have been paid to settle complaints about quality assurance.

Joe Davis, spokesman for the Energy Department in Washington, D.C., blamed congressional budget-cutting, not the settlements, for layoffs that he said could come this summer at Yucca Mountain.

Kristi Hodges, lead auditor for a program contractor, said millions of dollars had been spent settling quality assurance cases. Hodges based her estimate on the amount of settlements, attorney fees, time spent by government lawyers and funds paid to private, legal advisers.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal cited documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request showing one settlement for nearly $300,000. Another, in February, was for an undisclosed sum.

The newspaper said documents show most payments came from the Energy Department, which wants to entomb 77,000 tons of high level nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Davis said the Energy Department was not a party to the settlements, but said money the department paid to contractors could have underwritten settlements with contractors' employees.

Nevada's congressional delegation responded strongly, with Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., calling the payments "hush money."

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

Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., said Congress would take "very, very seriously" any appearance of cover-up or problems with the project.

In a letter Thursday to Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, Nevada's three U.S. representatives cited other claims about retaliation against officials who've raised quality assurance questions about Yucca Mountain.

Shelley Berkley, a Democrat, and Republicans Jim Gibbons and Jon Porter ask Abraham to explain "whether and how the department protects DOE and contractor employees who raise legitimate concerns."

Davis said the Energy Department responds appropriately, and said the Nuclear Regulatory Commission praised the DOE quality assurance program last week.

"All the quality assurance issues that have ever been raised have been documented for action and have either been addressed or are currently being addressed," he said.

Davis said the Energy Department will make a "safe, sound and effective scientific recommendation" when it applies to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a license to run the project.

Hodges, an auditor for Yucca Mountain contractor Navarro Research and Engineering, said she alerted the DOE inspector general's office two years ago to allegations of corruption and personnel problems in the quality assurance program, but the charges weren't investigated.

Reid and Ensign are preparing for a May 28 hearing in Las Vegas to address questions about Yucca Mountain quality assurance programs. They said the new information reinforced their concerns that funds have been misspent.

Funding problems could force layoffs at the site this summer, said Christopher Kouts, chief Yucca Mountain systems analyst.

Kouts told a National Academy of Sciences radioactive waste study board in Washington that as many as 100 workers, or 10 percent of the staff, might be laid off in July or August.

Energy Department spokesman Allen Benson at the Yucca Mountain project office in Las Vegas called the report premature, but said staffing cuts were being considered as part of an economizing effort.

Benson said tours might be restricted, along with access to some parts of the exploratory tunnel and other parts of the site.

Program managers have said portions of the mountain can be restricted without affecting ongoing scientific studies and the priority of filing a repository license.

Energy Department officials have said they need $591 million this year to meet a December 2004 goal for submitting an operating license.

But, "if you don't get the money you request, you have to run the operation around the budget you have," Davis said.

The Senate Armed Services Committee approved an amendment Thursday by Ensign to take a bite out of the site's budget.

Ensign said the committee cut from $430 million to $355 million the Pentagon's annual contribution to the nuclear waste program. The Yucca Mountain Project is part of the defense budget because the Pentagon plans to store military nuclear waste there.

Part of the Yucca program also is paid by ratepayers of utilities who use nuclear power through a special fund routed administered by the Energy Department.