In 1999, the DoE awarded a contract to the law firm of Winston & Strawn (W&S) in connection with the Yucca Mtn. (YM) Project. W&S was to assist DoE with a potential license application to be submitted to the NRC in the event YM is approved as the site for a repository for high-level radioactive waste. An inquiry was initiated into allegations that W&S had contemporaneously served as a registered lobbyist for the Nuclear Energy Inst. (NEI) while serving under the YM legal contract, & that W&S did not disclose these activities when bidding on the YM legal contract. The NEI is a nuclear energy industry trade group & its members include commercial utilities with spent nuclear fuel that would be destined for YM in the event the site was approved.