The National Resources Defense Council (NRDC), in a continuation of its attempts to halt construction of the National Ignition Facility (NIF) by legal means, has filed a lawsuit against the Department of Energy seeking to bar the use by the agency of last August's review certifying the new cost and schedule for the project. The NRDC is joined in the lawsuit by Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment, Livermore, CA, (Tri-Valley CARES) a group that has attempted for years to close down the laboratory. The lawsuit claims that DOE stacked the review panel with people favorable to NIF and who, in some cases, have financial conflicts of interest.

The groups asked the court to prohibit DOE from using the "Rebaseline Validation Review" that was completed in August. The groups said DOE acted inappropriately by using the report to secure $199.1 million in FY-01 funding for the project, which has come under DOE and congressional scrutiny since September 1999, when officials at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, home of the NIF, said the project was over budget and behind schedule.

To develop a more reliable cost and time schedule for NIF, DOE established a review panel in August that was chaired by Nevada Operations Office Manager Kathleen Carlson and Daniel Lehman, director of the Construction Management Support Division in the department's Office of Science. But NRDC and Tri-Valley CAREs claim many of the panel members had previously served as consultants to LLNL and therefore had a conflict-of-interest.

NRDC, in a previoul lawsuit, succeeded in getting a court order preventing DOE from using the results of a National Academy study because the Academy failed to follow procedures for public access mandated by the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA). The two groups claim that DOE committed similar violations of FACA in carrying out the August review.

DOE had no immediate comment on the lawsuit, but knowledgeable sources said that it was unlikely to result in slowdown or cancelleation of NIF construction.