Copyright 2000 The San Diego Union-Tribune
The San
Diego Union-Tribune
November 15, 2000, Wednesday
SECTION: BUSINESS;Pg. C-1
LENGTH: 473 words
HEADLINE:
SAIC joins Bechtel in study of nuclear waste plan
BYLINE: Dean Calbreath; STAFF WRITER
BODY:
After a bidding war marked by allegations of
political influence-peddling, San Diego's SAIC and San Francisco's Bechtel Corp.
have won a $3.1 billion contract to determine whether nuclear
waste should be stored at a site in Yucca Mountain, Nev.
Under the contract, Bechtel SAIC Co. -- a company formed by Bechtel and
Science Applications International Corp. -- will manage the Energy Department's
civilian radioactive waste program. Bechtel SAIC's duties will include drafting
a report for the White House next year on whether Yucca
Mountain is suitable as a permanent repository for high-level nuclear
waste.
Located about 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, Yucca
Mountain has sparked controversy since it was first proposed as a
nuclear waste dump in 1986.
Environmentalists say the project could
overheat the area's ground water. And they question whether the site is large
enough to house all 77,000 tons of the nation's highly radioactive nuclear
waste.
Polls show that the project is opposed by 85 percent of Nevada
residents as well as by the state's bipartisan congressional team.
SAIC
has been vying for work at Yucca Mountain for years.
In
1988, SAIC and Bechtel gained the first contract to begin reviewing
Yucca Mountain's suitability as a waste site.
But TRW, a losing bidder on the project, complained that SAIC had gained the job
through its close relationship with the Energy Department.
A subsequent
report by the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress,
later said there was a pattern of conflicts of interest between SAIC and the
Energy Department. Among other things, the Energy Department official in charge
of awarding the contract was a former SAIC employee.
After TRW was
brought onto the project, it eventually became a partner with SAIC. But five
months ago, the two companies split to compete on the current bid.
As
the bidding process went forward, SAIC donated heavily to the political
campaigns of Nevada legislators. This spring, Nevada's Democratic Sen. Harry
Reid and Republican Congressmen Jim Gibbons and John Ensign returned
$8,000 in political donations from SAIC.
"I was unaware
of SAIC's relationship to the Yucca Mountain project," Gibbons
said when he returned the money. "Nevadans must always be united in our efforts
to keep nuclear waste out of our state, so I will be joining with Sen. Reid and
Rep. Ensign in returning SAIC's campaign donations."
Barbara Boyle,
senior regional representative of the Sierra Club, says she is "not surprised"
by the Energy Department's choice of the two companies -- both of which have
served as consultants to the nuclear power industry.
"But it's really
important for them to have independent scientific analyses to determine whether
Yucca Mountain is the best site for this project," Boyle added.
LOAD-DATE: November 17, 2000
