Senate panel approves Test Site equipment

Wednesday, June 9, 1999 | 10:45 a.m.

A Senate budget panel has approved $5 million to move two laboratory instruments to Nevada crucial for subcritical experiments at the Nevada Test Site.

The Senate Appropriations Committee agreed Tuesday to transfer an Atlas pulsed power machine and a smaller Pegasus pulsed power machine from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in Albuquerque, N.M.

Nevada would receive $20 million if the energy spending package is approved. The budget must survive votes by the Senate, the House and then be signed by President Clinton.

The Atlas is used for examining weapons materials undergoing high pressure and high stress. It would analyze the subcritical experiments 1,000 feet beneath the surface of the Nevada Test Site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

The Department of Energy has conducted six subcritical experiments at the Test Site. They are subcritical because plutonium or uranium does not undergo a chain reaction, causing a nuclear explosion, DOE scientists say. Another test is expected before Oct. 1.

The smaller Pegasus machine would go to UNLV engineering and physics faculty, who would experiment on condensed matter. Laboratory testing would serve as preliminary experiments to full subcritical tests at the Test Site. The university experiments would be funded by competitive bid.

Although the Atlas and Pegasus equipment can be used in other physics experiments, their capability is important to subcritical experiments, DOE scientists say.

Subcritical tests help physicists explain how weapons material behaves without a nuclear explosion.

President George Bush stopped underground nuclear experiments at the Test Site in September 1992 and President Clinton has continued the testing ban. In order to ensure the safety of the U.S. nuclear weapons arsenal, the DOE began subcritical tests in July 1997.

In addition to the $5 million in moving expenses for the equipment, the Senate committee included $15 million in the 2000 budget for further subcritical experiments at the Test Site.

Last year the committee approved $60 million for subcritical experiments after India and Pakistan conducted nuclear weapons tests.