Subcritical test draws protests around world

Tuesday, June 18, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

A delay in an underground explosion that had been scheduled for today at the Nevada Test Site is not enough for protesters, who staged protests around the world.

They are calling for an end to all nuclear tests, including the type of explosion the Test Site is planning -- a "subcritical" blast whose radioactive content is far less than a typical nuclear experiment.

Protesters are also calling for a permanent shutdown of the Test Site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

The Department of Energy said the delay is not out of deference to protesters, but because environmental impacts of the explosion have not yet been fully assessed.

Rick Nielsen, director the Citizen Alert environmental group, said the DOE should cancel, not postpone, the test.

Citizen Alert joined two other environmental groups, Nevada Desert Experience and Action for Nuclear Abolition, in a protest at Bechtel Nevada headquarters Monday in North Las Vegas. Bechtel is the DOE's prime contractor at the Test Site.

"We want it to be clear that we are not the only people concerned about these subcritical nuclear weapons tests," Nielsen said. "This is a global issue. What they do at the Nevada Test Site has a direct impact on the ongoing negotiations for a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty."

Demonstrators also gathered in Honolulu, Livermore, Calif., Washington, D.C., New York City, Switzerland, Belgium, Netherlands, Scotland, Finland, Romania, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Slovak, Belerus and Germany.

In Washington, D.C., about 50 protesters in front of the DOE headquarters banged drums, danced and sang anti-nuclear lyrics to the tune "Frere Jacques." A man dressed as a U.S. soldier pointed a mock nuclear warhead at a beach ball symbolizing Earth. Dry ice steamed out of garbage cans labeled "Radioactive waste." Signs read, "We Are Critical of Your Subcritical."

In Honolulu, activists pledged support for the Western Shoshone tribe, which claims the Nevada Test Site as its own.

Another demonstration, sponsored by the Action for Nuclear Abolition, was scheduled for 3 p.m. today in front of the Foley Federal Building, 300 Las Vegas Boulevard South.

The United States has not exploded an atomic weapon at the Test Site since September 1992, when President George Bush ordered a moratorium. Since then, the Test Site has remained in a state of readiness, with about 4,000 workers maintaining the ability to restart nuclear experiments on orders from the president.

The Clinton administration is involved in comprehensive test ban treaty negotiations in Geneva. Other countries have complained that the proposed subcritical tests violate the treaty language.

The DOE planned to conduct six small subcritical tests in 1996 and 1997 at the Test Site's Low Yield Nuclear Experimental Research tunnel 1,000 feet beneath the desert surface.

In a subcritical blast, the government says, about 1 percent of the energy released comes from nuclear sources and the other 99 percent from chemical explosives.

The subcritical tests are necessary to improve scientific knowledge about the dynamic properties of aging nuclear materials, especially plutonium, in the current weapons stockpile, the DOE says.

STATES NEWS SERVICE contributed to this story.