Nuclear cleanups fall short

Friday, June 25, 1999 | 2:13 a.m.

The Department of Energy has spent billions of dollars on ground water and soil cleanups at the nation's nuclear weapons facilities, including three sites in Nevada, but current methods fail to clean up persistent contaminants, a national panel said.

The DOE needs to concentrate on the most promising cleanup methods and develop new technologies that work for both radiation and chemical pollutants under shrinking federal budgets, the National Academy of Sciences said in a report released late Thursday.

"The technology that often is used to remediate contaminated sites is simply ineffective and unable to accomplish the massive job that needs to be done," said committee chair C. Herb Ward, a Rice University professor of environmental science, engineering, ecology and evolutionary biology.

The three Nevada sites are:

* Nevada Test Site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas, where nuclear weapons were exploded above and below ground in Cold War experiments from 1951 until 1992. Although exact figures for plutonium contamination are secret, about 3.3 tons of the radioactive element escaped into the environment from U.S. nuclear weapons tests conducted there.

* Central Nevada Test Site, 60 miles northeast of Tonopah where one underground nuclear experiment was conducted. A nuclear explosive called Faultless exploded on Jan. 19, 1968, helping scientists determine if seismic waves from weapons are different from those produced by earthquakes. The DOE is still cleaning the site of chemical wastes left from drilling.

* Tonopah Test Range included in the Nellis Air Force Base Range, which is used by Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, N.M., to test mechanics and delivery systems for nuclear weapons and other defense projects. The DOE contamination includes radioactive plutonium in the soils.

The main problem hampering DOE progress is reduced funding, the report said. Congress cut the cleanup budget from $82.1 million in 1994 to $14.7 million in 1998.

For the DOE's Nevada Operations Office surface soils contaminated with plutonium are a top priority, agency spokeswoman Nancy Harkess said.

"If it's surface soil contamination, then it is a major concern," Harkess said. The Tonopah Test Range cleanup is a priority site, she said, because nuclear safety tests contaminated soils there.

The DOE is also concerned about where ground water contaminated with radiation is headed on the Test Site.

The DOE, U.S. Geological Survey, Bechtel Nevada and the Desert Research Institute are developing a computer model that will show the direction of flow from the Test Site, especially from Pahute Mesa in the northwest corner of the site where ranches and farms are located 20 miles from the boundary.