IG audit questions use of DOE oversight funds at Yucca Mountain

IG audit questions use of DOE oversight funds at Yucca Mountain

New York (Platts)--4Aug2005

Nuclear utility customers helped pay for work ranging from development of a 
planned community in Nevada to legal fees after three Nevada counties and the 
state itself incorrectly used DOE oversight funds for work unrelated to the 
repository project at Yucca Mountain, Nev., said a DOE Inspector General (IG) 
report released today. 

An IG audit questioned the appropriateness of $1.2-mil of the $11.7-mil spent
by the state and three counties during fiscal 2003 and 2004, the report said.
Oversight funds are to be used for monitoring, testing, or evaluation of
activities associated with work at Yucca Mountain. 

Congress has said the funds cannot be used for lobbying, litigation expenses,
or coalition-building activities. But the IG said it found some of the money
was used for such things as economic development expenses, official travel
unrelated to nuclear waste, and monitoring of the Nevada Test Site, a former
nuclear weapons test site that borders Yucca Mountain. The report is at 
http://www.ig.doe.gov.

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