The federal government is still building a state-of-the-art hearing room for multiple lawyers, witnesses and judges in Bethesda, Md. and Las Vegas, reports the New York Times. The system may not be needed until 2008 but the administrative judges hearing the case say the new computerized hearing room will speed things up and help prevent lawyers and agency personnel getting buried in mounds of paper.

The two linked, computerized courtrooms will let the participants search “millions of pages of records almost instantly, calling them to their own screen or those of other participants,” the paper reports. The video system is voice-keyed and automated so as soon as anyone speaks, the camera pivots to their position. And court reporters will add subtitles of the documents under discussion.

So far the system, built by a subsidiary of Canadian networking outfit Nortel, has cost $6.2 million. And the project manager is working on a portable version of the system so that it can be taken to hotel conference rooms for reactor licensing hearings. That last part is just further evidence, as Business Press reported a couple of weeks back that the government is still working on improving nuclear power and expects more reactors to be built.

And the hearings could all be live on the Web although no decision has been made on that. The news about the next generation hearing room is further evidence that the best chance of killing this project is not going to be more shock-and-horror revelations about DOE malfeasance but strangling it with the red tape that the government itself is providing by the bale.