Scientists Fudged Nuke Waste Data, Won't Testify

[Guest guest]

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/040905Y.shtml

 

Interior Refuses Yucca Testimony Request

By Erica Werner

The Associated Press

 

Friday 08 April 2005

 

Washington - Three scientists involved with e-mails about

falsifying documents on the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump won't be

made available to testify before a congressional panel, the Interior

Department said Friday.

 

The department's U.S. Geological Survey also released a letter

from the panel that reveals the scientists' names for the first time.

 

The letter sent Thursday by Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., requests the

presence of Joe A. Hevesi, Alan L. Flint and Lorraine E. Flint " to

meet with subcommittee staff regarding statements contained in the

e-mails in question. "

 

Porter's House Government Reform federal work force and agency

organization subcommittee has been investigating the e-mails, written

between 1998 and 2000 and made public by the Energy Department last

month, that show Yucca Mountain workers discussing concocting facts

and keeping two sets of figures, one for themselves and one to show

quality assurance officers.

 

In one e-mail a USGS scientist wrote: " I don't have a clue when

these programs were installed. So I've made up the dates and names.

.... This is as good as it's going to get. If they need more proof, I

will be happy to make up more stuff. "

 

Only redacted versions of the e-mails have been made public so

it's impossible to tell what role Hevesi or the Flints had, and

subcommittee staff declined to elaborate. All are listed on USGS Web

sites as research hydrologists in Sacramento, Calif. Messages left on

their office voice-mails were not immediately returned Friday.

 

The Flints share a home number in Davis, Calif.

 

The FBI and the inspectors general at the Interior and Energy

departments are investigating the possibility of fraudulent work on

the nuclear waste dump planned for 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

The Interior Department cited the investigations in turning down

Porter's request for the scientists' presence at a hearing set for

next Wednesday.

 

" Given the potentially serious implications for the employees

involved, the department believes it is inappropriate to require the

individuals identified by the subcommittee to testify in a public

hearing about the matters under active investigation, " said a letter

sent to Porter on Friday by Matt Eames, director of the Interior

Department's office of congressional and legislative affairs.

 

Chad Bungard, deputy staff director and chief counsel for Porter's

panel, said the subcommittee was evaluating how to respond. He said

subpoenas were a last resort.

 

The workers who wrote the e-mails were studying how water moved

through the desert site where the government wants to store 77,000

tons of commercial and defense nuclear waste for at least 10,000

years. The USGS validated Energy Department conclusions that water

seepage was relatively slow, so radiation would be less likely to escape.

 

Hevesi and the Flints are listed on a Lawrence Berkeley Lab Web

site as co-authors of a report on water infiltration at Yucca.

 

-------

 

Jump to today's TO Features:

 

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is

distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior

interest in receiving the included information for research and

educational purposes. t r u t h o u t has no affiliation whatsoever

with the originator of this article nor is t r u t h o u t endorsed or

sponsored by the originator.)

 

" Go to Original " links are provided as a convenience to our readers

and allow for verification of authenticity. However, as originating

pages are often updated by their originating host sites, the versions

posted on TO may not match the versions our readers view when clicking

the " Go to Original " links.