Richardson bulks up DOE budget for Nevada

Tuesday, Feb. 2, 1999 | 11:47 a.m.

Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, calling the Nevada Test Site a vital player in national defense, boosted its budget for Nevada operations by $2.4 million for the upcoming fiscal year.

Defense programs, such as subcritical weapons tests and training law-enforcement staff for countering terrorism threats, could receive $245.3 million of the total $659.4 million federal budget for Nevada requested Monday by the Clinton administration.

The total national Department of Energy budget request is $2.8 billion, a $138 million increase over this year's budget. It covers scientific research into atomic particles, cutting-edge computers, energy and nuclear weapons security both in the United States and Russia.

The Test Site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas, was the U.S. location for nuclear weapons experiments from 1951 to 1992.

Since the testing moratorium in 1992, the Rhode Island-sized site has become an outdoor laboratory for subcritical tests, which do not produce the chain reaction necessary for a nuclear weapons blast, as well as anti-terrorism training and maintaining readiness in case nuclear testing resumes.

Richardson asked for another $250.3 million to pay for more scientific studies at Yucca Mountain, the proposed national nuclear waste repository 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The secretary has visited Nevada twice since he took office in August.

The Department of Energy is asking for an extra $39 million to finish a study of ground-water flows and heat tests in Yucca Mountain's volcanic rock. The money would come from $85 million in a temporary nuclear storage fund that Congress froze in 1996.

Since the administration has no immediate plans for temporary storage of high-level nuclear waste, the $39 million could be used to complete scientific studies at Yucca Mountain to determine if whether is suitable to hold 77,000 tons of highly radioactive waste, said Lake Barrett, director the DOE's radioactive waste program.

Without the extra funds, submitting a licensing application for Yucca Mountain by 2002 and opening a repository by 2010 could be delayed further, Barrett said. The DOE has been criticized by independent reviewers for taking 15 years to study the mountain.

Within the Yucca Mountain program, the DOE is asking for $4.7 million for the state of Nevada to continue its oversight work. Congress has withheld funds for the state's work since 1996, and it continues to deny money to pay state staff. The DOE is asking Congress to free up the funds, Yucca Mountain Project spokesman Allen Benson said. Ten surrounding counties could get $5.4 million for related work.

The DOE budget also contains a $20 million request for health studies of residents living near its facilities nationwide. Former Gov. Bob Miller requested funds to examine those raising families, cattle and crops around the Test Site.

Dr. David Michaels, DOE's new health and safety assistant secretary, said the agency would focus on safety at all its sites. The DOE will review each site with the Department of Health and Human Services after more than $60 million in requests for studies arrives.

The Test Site's future looks good. "We are very fortunate," said David Marks Jr., chief financial officer for the DOE's Nevada Operations Office.

"The Nevada Test Site budget is going to be stable," Marks said, referring to a similar $657 million budget approved for Nevada by Congress in 1999.

Although major DOE contractors employed 8,188 workers in 1992 while underground nuclear tests continued, the number will remain stable at around 4,300 for the foreseeable future.

The projects outlined for 2000 include two subcritical weapons experiments to test materials contained in the nuclear stockpile. While the Test Site can handle four subcriticals a year, the future underground experiments are more complex and more expensive, Marks said.

Under $93.1 million proposed for environmental cleanup of the Test Site, 34 hazardous areas, such as solvent or oil spills at the center of the site, will be restored as well as three areas on the Tonopah Test Range in central Nevada.

Another $47.5 million is marked for work by contractors not involved at the Test Site. This slice of the budget includes 16 exercises for training law enforcement and emergency response crews to handle a radioactive accident or acts of terrorism.

In addition, the new budget has $5 million of $9 million needed to improve the 37-mile Mercury highway leading to the Test Site and up to $5 million for the year to the University of Nevada System to continue oversight at Yucca Mountain.