Editorial: Aiming to stifle dissenting voices

When in doubt kill the messenger or, at the very least, try to muzzle the message.

That's what Congress and the U.S. Department of Energy are intent on doing to the Nevada Nuclear Waste Projects Office, the state agency that monitors the ongoing study of Yucca Mountain as a potential storage site for the nation's high-level nuclear waste dump. Congress cut off federal funding to the agency in 1996 after an audit contended that the state was misusing money for pointing out the folly of the Yucca Mountain project.

As the Sun's Steve Kanigher reported last week, the state's Nuclear Waste Projects Office is facing a funding crisis and is on the verge of being shut down. The state agency was planning on using $691,000 that was still left over after federal funding stopped in 1996, but the Energy Department is giving every indication that the state won't be able to use this money any time soon, if ever.

The Nuclear Waste Project Office's sins stem from telling the public what the nuclear power industry would like hidden from view: namely some of the scientific problems in transporting and storing nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain. "Our state agency did nothing more than disseminate information that the public has a right to know, both in Nevada and in other states. There is absolutely no allegation that the agency misappropriated even a nickel, or that any money is missing or used for personal gain," Gov. Bob Miller said last week.

While the Energy Department and Congress play hardball with Nevada over funding state oversight, the director of the state Nuclear Waste Projects Office, Bob Loux, intends to pursue up to $1.8 million through the state's Interim Finance Committee to keep the agency running for another year.

It's hard to imagine too many other uses more important than funding a state agency whose job it is to monitor the progress of federal efforts to build a high-level nuclear waste site in Nevada. The Energy Department and the nuclear power industry have demonstrated time and again they're only capable of conducting one-sided reviews, tipping the scales to favor politics over science.

The Interim Finance Committee should seriously consider Loux's request and provide his agency with the proper funding to carry out its mission. After all, if the state of Nevada isn't watching over the Energy Department's shoulders, who then will?

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