|
|||||
|
|||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
 |
 |
    |
|
|
|||
 |
|
||
|
|||
|
|
|
|
||||||||
|
U.S. Energy Department Reaffirms Yucca Findings
A U.S. Energy Department report released Friday found that work done in preparation for the planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump in Nevada was sound despite containing fabricated information, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, July 19, 2005). However, due to quality assurance regulations the work will be redone at a cost of up to several million dollars, said Paul Golan, acting head of the department’s Civilian Radioactive Waste Management Office. “We need to move forward based on work that meets our quality standards. And if that means redeveloping this work, taking the time and incurring the cost to do that, we just need to do that,” he said. U.S. Geological Survey hydrologists indicated in e-mail messages revealed last year that they kept documents from quality assurance personnel, fabricated facts and deleted data that did not fit their needs. The scientists, who wrote the e-mails from 1998 to 2004, were trying to determine how quickly water would penetrate the dump site. Findings that the water penetration would be fairly slow supported that argument that radiation would be less likely to escape the facility, AP reported. Nevada lawmakers and opponents of the site challenged the finding and accused the scientists of changing their data to match Energy Department conclusions. The department’s report found that despite these fabrications, the estimates by the scientists match the work of other researchers on similar environments elsewhere. The report said the 2002 recommendation to use Yucca as a storage site stood. Critics of the dump dismissed the report. “The DOE, which failed to prevent the falsification of scientific data on Yucca Mountain projects in the first place, now wants us to believe that the falsifications made no difference in the quality of the work. That's absurd,” said Senator Harry Reid (D-Nev.) in a joint release with fellow Nevada Senator John Ensign (R) (Erica Werner, Associated Press/Washington Post, Feb. 17).
| ||||||||||
Back to top
