Plans to burn B-52 pieces, uranium stirs concerns

Tuesday, Aug. 3, 1999 | 9:44 a.m.

"There were some major deficiencies in the assessment," Paul Liebendorfer, Nevada federal facilities bureau chief, said Monday. Liebendorfer is a U.S. Public Health Service employee whose bureau is a branch of the state Environmental Protection Division.

"They don't adequately address the potential dispersion of the material," he said, referring to 1.8 tons of depleted uranium that will be used for stockpile stewardship tests at a fire experiment facility.

Depleted uranium is a by-product of the process to enrich uranium for nuclear fuel. It is radioactive but contains less of the uranium-235 isotope than is found in natural uranium.

Grace Potorti, executive director of the Reno-based Rural Alliance for Military Accountability, said the burning of the depleted uranium on public lands calls for preparation of a full environmental impact statement.

"The amount of fuel they propose to potentially burn would put out pollutants in excess of what is allowed under air regulations," Liebendorfer said.

He said to conduct burn experiments, the Energy Department would need a waiver from air quality regulations, similar to a waiver the agency obtained for hazardous materials spill experiments at the Nevada Test Site.

According to a draft environmental assessment, the fire experiment facility would be built 160 miles northwest of Las Vegas and 30 miles southeast of Tonopah at the Tonopah Test Range, which is part of Nellis Air Force Range.

The government has conducted similar burn tests, some dating to the late 1950s, at the Tonopah Test Range, the Lurance Canyon facility in New Mexico and at the Naval Air Weapons Center at China Lake, Calif. But the government contends new tests are needed to refine computer models of fiery accidents involving nuclear weapons.

In order to do that, B-52 parts, including a full fuselage and mock weapons, would be placed in a shallow pit filled with 26,000 gallons of water. As much as 30,000 gallons of jet fuel would be added and ignited as it floats on top of the water.

The facility also would be used to certify transportation containers for weapons, radioactive and hazardous materials and wastes, according to the document.

Liebendorfer noted that the document wrongly implies that the Energy Department's Albuquerque office, not the Air Force, is the owner-operator of the Tonopah Test Range.

He said the Energy Department also needs to consider how much radioactive material from the experiments will be deposited on areas that are already contaminated from past nuclear weapons safety tests.