DOE faulted on pick of law firm for nuclear waste dump project

WASHINGTON: The Energy Department did not fully document its rationale for awarding a $100 million contract to a law firm with a conflict of interest for work on a national nuclear waste dump in Nevada, the agency’s inspector general said Thursday.

“We found the absence of such documentation disturbing,” said the investigator’s report.



However, the department’s selection of Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP to help prepare a license application for the Yucca Mountain repository appeared to follow conflict-of-interest requirements established by federal regulations and the District of Columbia bar, the investigator found.

Morgan Lewis represents nuclear utilities suing the government over contracts to store spent reactor fuel. The government is facing billions in liability for failing to make good on those contracts because of long delays in opening Yucca Mountain.

AP