YUCCA MOUNTAIN, Nev. - The Department of Energy has admitted that data regarding the climatological safety of water infiltration systems at Yucca Mountain Nuclear Storage Facility were fabricated, as revealed in e-mails written by U.S. Geological Survey staffers.

In those e-mails, government scientists of the USGS said they were clueless about project specifics and were willing to backdate data and make things up. One expressed the desire to ''get the hell'' out of Yucca Mountain; another described the nuclear storage facility as being held together by quick fixes.

''This is what we felt was going on, they have not been truthful. It shows they want this so bad that they are willing to do anything to move forward with something that hasn't even really been studied,'' Timbisha Shoshone Chairman Joe Kennedy told Indian Country Today.

As Congress began its probe in April, Energy Department Secretary Samuel Bodman said data pertaining to quality assurance at the high-level nuclear waste dump appears to have been falsified by staff of the USGS.

''During the document review process associated with the Licensing Support Network preparation for the Yucca Mountain project, DOE contractors discovered multiple e-mails written between May 1998 and March 2000, in which a USGS employee indicated that he had fabricated documentation of his work,'' Bodman said in a written statement.

One USGS employee, identified as USGS employee 1, wrote: ''I don't have a clue when these programs were installed. So I've made up the dates and names. ... This is as good as it's going to get. If they need more proof, I will be happy to make up more stuff, as long as it's not a video recording of the software being installed.''

The revelations of government scientists' fabricated data were found in e-mails written to colleagues. The House Government Reform Subcommittee on the Federal Work Force and Agency Organization released redacted versions of some of the e-mails.

An unidentified worker said Yucca Mountain is being held together by quick fixes: ''Some nights I have a hard time going to sleep because I realize the importance of trying to get the right answer, and I know how many serious unknowns are still out there, and how many quick fixes are still holding things together.''

The revelation of fabricated data came in March, just after Western Shoshone leaders told ICT that if completed, the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump would poison the waterways of their ancestral land - land described in Article 5 of the 1863 Treaty of Ruby Valley.

Kennedy and Western Shoshone National Council Chairman Raymond Yowell said Shoshone long ago predicted that if the mountain, known to Shoshone as ''Snake Mountain,'' were mistreated, it would move and cause a great deal of harm.

Pointing out that nuclear science has not been developed to perfection and has already resulted in widespread death, Kennedy said if nuclear waste were stored on Yucca Mountain, Nevada's waterways would be poisoned.

Western Shoshone have filed a federal lawsuit to halt the nuclear waste dump on their ancestral land, based on the 1863 Ruby Valley treaty. The United States' exposure of fabricated data in regards to water follows separate claims by whistleblowers that they were told to circumvent gauges that would measure the amount of Nevada's water used at the Yucca Mountain facility.

USGS employees said what Western Shoshone had long suspected: that scientists were willing to make things up to make the project work.

In the e-mails describing fabricated water data, USGS employee 2 said, ''Science by peer pressure is dangerous but sometime (sic) it is necessary.''

One unidentified worker asked if he should create data and backdate it. ''Here's my question: When we go to start (quality assurance)'ing the site-scale modeling work, will I get taken to the cleaners because I am not referencing either a tech procedure or a scientific notebook? In other words, would it be cost-effective to create a (scientific notebook) for the site-scale work and back-date the whole thing??''

USGS employee 2 wrote, ''This is now CYA and we had better be good at it. I seem to have let this one slip a little too much in an attempt to cover all our work (and get us the hell out of the long-term problem of Yucca Mountain) but now it's clear that we have a little to no choice. In all honesty I've never felt well-managed or helped by the USGS (Yucca Mountain Project) folks. In fact, as you know, I've often felt abandoned. This time it's no different, or worse, and we have to work together to get out of this one.''

USGS employee 1, who also makes reference to Sandia Labs in New Mexico, wrote that the Yucca Mountain project ''has now reached a point where they need to have certain items work no matter what, and the infiltration maps are on that list. If USGS can't find a way to make it work, Sandia will (but for now they are definitely counting on us to do the job).''

Bodman said the documentation referred to in the e-mails is required as part of the Department of Energy and Nuclear Regulatory Commission's quality assurance programs and verifies the accuracy and credibility of the work completed. The documentation relates to computer modeling involving water infiltration and climate.

''The Department of Energy has initiated a scientific investigation of the data and documentation that was part of this modeling activity. If in the course of that review any work is found to be deficient, it will be replaced or supplemented with analysis and documentation that meets appropriate quality assurance standards to ensure that the scientific basis of the project is sound.

''We are conducting a thorough review of all work completed by the identified individuals to ensure that other work was not affected,'' Bodman said.

Bodman said the Energy Department's Office of Inspector General was asked to investigate. The Energy Department said it informed the USGS and the State of Nevada about the e-mails.

''The safe handling and disposal of nuclear waste and the sound scientific basis for the repository safety analysis are priorities for this Administration and the Department of Energy. All related decisions have been, and will continue to be, based on sound science.

''The fact remains that this country needs a permanent geological nuclear waste repository, and the Administration will continue to aggressively pursue that goal,'' Bodman said.

Kennedy said it is good the fabricated data was revealed. ''It is good in a way, but it sure makes the DOE look bad.''