Yucca Fool Some of the People Some of the Time

Feds won't press charges against scientists who falsified Yucca documents

Scientists accused of falsifying quality-assurance documents for the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear-waste site in Nevada will not be charged by federal prosecutors. Emails between U.S. Geological Survey hydrologists from 1998 to 2000 indicate that dates were invented and inconvenient data was deleted as hydrologists conducted a data review before the Energy Department sought a license for the nuke-waste dump. The White House is pushing to speed up construction at Yucca, which is supposed to store 77,000 tons of waste from nuclear power plants. Despite the decision not to file charges, the Energy Department's inspector general admitted that the scientists' lapse has "had the effect of undermining public confidence in the quality of the science associated with the Yucca Mountain Project." Because that confidence was sky-high before, don't you know.