Reid bill seeks new nuke tests

Thursday, June 20, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

An amendment introduced by Sens. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., allowing the president, with congressional consent, to resume nuclear experiments in Nevada has raised the hackles of test ban advocates.

Called the Kyl-Reid amendment, the Senate did not consider the proposal Wednesday, but could hear it at any time.

The move upset Sen. James Exon, D-Neb., who immediately mounted efforts for a filibuster. "Why offer this nine days before a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty could be reached?" he asked on the Senate floor.

Sens. Mark Hatfield, R-Ore., and Exon sponsored the original act that stopped nuclear testing in 1992. That legislation will expire Sept. 30.

The United States would be the only nuclear power without authority to test, Kyl said.

But peace groups, outraged at the talk of renewed nuclear testing, staged a mock funeral march outside Reid's Las Vegas office.

"We are sorry to say that while we applaud Sen. Reid for all his efforts on Yucca Mountain (the proposed high-level nuclear waste dump), in our view he has bombed out in his current effort to lift the nuclear testing moratorium," said Rick Nielsen, executive director of Citizen Alert.

The DOE on Monday indefinitely postponed subcritical tests using small amounts of radioactive materials in underground blasts. The DOE said an environmental impact statement for the Nevada Test Site was incomplete, but made no mention of the treaty negotiations.

China renewed its demand Tuesday for allowing peaceful nuclear explosions under the test ban, a move that threatens to derail talks.