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U.S. Congress to Subpoena Yucca Mountain Records
The U.S. Energy Department is expected to face a congressional subpoena demanding documents related to possible paperwork fraud on the planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste storage facility in Nevada, the Associated Press reported yesterday (see GSN, June 30). Representative Jon Porter (R-Nev.) requested the subpoena after the department failed to turn over documents, including personnel records, research details and organizational charts. House Government Reform Committee Chairman Tom Davis (R-Va.) agreed to issue the subpoena today, according to AP. “We have asked for these documents since early April. They have been uncooperative,” Porter said. “I'm going to use every tool I have available and turn over every stone to make sure we have all the information.” A DOE spokesman said Porter was welcome to view the documents in a reading room but refused to turn them over because of fears that they would be made public. Porter released an earlier round of documents indicating fraud connected with the project, AP reported. “It's unfortunate that the congressman has chosen to go this route, especially in light of the fact that all the information he has requested has been available to any member of his subcommittee or staff for three weeks,” said spokesman Craig Stevens. Porter called the offer to view the documents at the department “a continual insult to the U.S. Congress.” Department officials have determined that the documents provided to Porter in March, including e-mails between government scientists, do not disprove the justification for the site. In a letter to Porter, acting department General Counsel Eric Fygi wrote that he was concerned that the Yucca investigation could “metastasize without discrete bounds to embrace all current and future Yucca Mountain licensing proceeding matters” (Erica Werner, Associated Press/Baltimore Sun, July 18).
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