Yucca scientist investigated over e-mails

WASHINGTON -- E-mails by a government scientist on the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump project suggest the worker was planning to fabricate records and manipulate results to ensure outcomes that would help the project move forward.

"I don't have a clue when these programs were installed. So I've made up the dates and names," wrote a U.S. Geological Survey employee in one e-mail released Friday by a congressional committee investigating suspected document falsification on the project.

"This is as good as it's going to get. If they need more proof, I will be happy to make up more stuff."

In another message the same employee wrote to a colleague: "In the end I keep track of 2 sets of files, the ones that will keep QA happy and the ones that were actually used." QA apparently refers to "quality assurance."

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/04/01/yucca_scientist_investigated_over_e_mails/

these two sets of books.
Makes me wonder how many other gov. projects have two sets of books!!



.....Many Nevadans and some environmentalists say the materials can never be safely stored and the plan puts local residents at risk. There also are concerns among others outside the state that hauling the waste to Nevada puts at risk those along the routes.

The e-mails were written from 1998 to 2000 and circulated among a team of USGS scientists studying how water moves through the planned dump site, a key issue in determining whether and how much radiation could escape.

Scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey validated Energy Department conclusions that water seepage was relatively slow, so radiation would be less likely to escape.

By the time the affected people begin to notice health related problems it would be too late.

I dated a guy once who worked for one of these firms. They made stuff up all the time and kept double books.

This firm did stuff like put "oil-eating" bacteria in contaminated plots and then determine when it had been "cleaned up" so that it was safe for builders to start putting houses up.

.
.
.

ya sure that's not a quote from Rummy or Wofie to the Boy King when he was tryna sell the invasion of Iraq?

yeah . .

hasta be!!

Scientists on the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project used "fudge factors" and made up dates to fabricate quality assurance of their work in modeling how water would move through the mountain under future climate conditions.

Their fabrications and tactics to cover up their shortcomings are told in a 90-page collection of redacted e-mails released Friday by Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., whose subcommittee will air the allegations at a hearing Tuesday.

Some e-mails from scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey, which also appear in Department of Energy files, instruct the reader to "delete this memo after you've read it."

One says flatly: "I've made up the dates and names. ... If they need more proof I will be happy to make up more stuff."

Another confirms that quality assurance for documenting data was sorely lacking in the models used to determine how much water will seep through the mountain, carrying off radioactive particles as the containers holding 77,000 tons of spent fuel corrode over time.

"Wait till they figure out that nothing I've provided them is QA (quality assurance). If they really want the stuff, they'll have to pay to do it right," says an Oct. 29, 1998, message that appeared in both sets of redacted e-mails from the Interior and Energy departments.

The e-mails portray a workplace where disgruntled employees felt pressured and rushed.

more...

http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2005/Apr-02-Sat-2005/news/26204008.html

And here's more redacted emails ...

http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2005/Apr-02-Sat-2005/news/26204026.html

Unfortunately, some scientists go along with it. But then, the media says 'scientists' but doesn't list disciplines. Were these scientists, or were they engineers?

when Bushbutt said there was sound science at YM so he approved it??

Good movie to rent on a rainy weekend.