O’Leary: Sub-critical testing on tap for NTS

Tuesday, Dec. 10, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

The Nevada Test Site will become a primary storage site for low-level radioactive waste, and possibly high-level nuclear waste, but it will not play a major role in the U.S. Department of Energy's post-Cold War plans.

That was the word Monday from Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary, who spoke to the media on a range of topics.

O'Leary's top announcement of the day was that the nation's 50 tons of surplus weapons-grade plutonium will be burned in reactors or encased in glass blocks for burial, or both. And she said facilities in Washington, South Carolina and Texas are in the running to handle the chore.

The Clinton administration, including O'Leary, earlier this year fought a move in Congress backed by the nuclear industry to store commercial radioactive wastes at the Nevada Test Site.

The industry effort failed after Clinton promised a veto of temporary storage. But O'Leary made it clear Monday that it may be only a matter of time before 77,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste arrive at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, for permanent storage.

The Test Site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas, must remain ready in case nuclear weapons experiments begin again, she said. It also will become a place for scientists to figure out how to test the reliability of existing nuclear weapons without a nuclear explosion, called subcritical experiments, O'Leary said.

She gave no timetable for beginning the subcritical experiments in a tunnel 1,000 feet beneath the Test Site's surface.

"We've been waiting since June 18 for word on the subcritical tests," said John McGrail, director of the DOE's Nevada stockpile stewardship division.

That was the date when the DOE had scheduled the first in four subcritical experiments at the Nevada site.

Before any subcritical tests begin, the DOE must prepare reports on safety, containment and criticality to make sure the experiments do not become nuclear explosions, McGrail said.

It will take eight to 10 weeks before a timetable is ready, he said.

O'Leary announced that she will leave the Clinton administration on Jan. 20. She said the announcements Monday on handling surplus plutonium and taking another step in stockpile stewardship were the "captstone" of her push toward nuclear nonproliferation.

But Rick Nielsen, director of Citizen Alert, a grass-roots anti-nuclear group in Las Vegas, said the teleconference broadcast from Washington, D.C., was "typical" DOE.

"It seems to indicate to me they are waiting for a lot of decisions in waste management to be made," he said. Under the DOE's plan, Nevada will continue to receive low-level nuclear wastes at the Test Site.

The state of Nevada objected to turning the site into a national radioactive dump, because its original mission was to experiment with nuclear weapons during 40 years of U.S.-Soviet tensions.

As for the proposed subcritical experiments, Nielsen said the DOE plans to test future nuclear weapons capabilities that could threaten the fragile Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty passed this year. The United States has had a nuclear testing moratorium in effect since 1992.

"Why the hell spend the money?" he asked, adding that the DOE's approach will only create more nuclear wastes.

"They're just sticking it to us from all angles," Nielsen said.

He also found irony in the future of solar energy at the Test Site, since the final environmental impact statement says the sunlight-generated energy will support the stockpile stewardship mission.

"That has to be the biggest irony of any statement I've ever heard of," Nielsen said. "It makes you want to cry after we've come this far to get solar energy as part of the mix and then they're going to use it for nuclear weapons activities."

Last week, the DOE's Test Site manager, Bechtel Nevada Corp., announced more bad news. By the end of 1997, the ax will fall on another 400 Test Site workers.

Currently there are 2,779 employees at the Test Site.

The Test Site once boasted 11,196 workers, including those at Yucca Mountain during 1988 when President Ronald Reagan proposed a nuclear shield known as the Strategic Defense Initiative. It was never built.