DOE halts plans to burn B-52 parts

Tuesday, Feb. 29, 2000 | 10:25 a.m.

Both the Pentagon and the Department of Energy have dropped controversial plans to burn B-52 bomber parts, including radioactive and toxic chemicals, in Southern Nevada, Energy Secretary Bill Richardson said.

The Nevada Division of Environmental Protection and Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., expressed fears of contaminating areas surrounding the Tonopah Test Range, 160 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The range is part of the Nellis Air Force Range.

Richardson sent a letter to Reid saying the DOE had canceled a final environmental assessment for the pilot project.

"The departments of Energy and Defense have carefully reviewed the proposed experiments at the Tonopah Test Range using a B-52 bomber fuselage with mock nuclear weapons, including depleted uranium and beryllium, and have concluded not to proceed with these experiments," Richardson wrote to Reid.

The proposal involved testing a B-52 by igniting it in a pool of jet fuel at the Tonopah fire experiment facility.

Paul Liebendorfer of the state's Environmental Protection Division said that the plan did not address where the depleted uranium would end up in the surroundings.

Reid said Wednesday, "My objection was not about the nature of the experiment but rather how it was to be carried out and more importantly, what its effects would have been on Nevadans and the lands surrounding the test range."

The senator had suggested the military might try using computer simulations, much the way DOE scientists conduct mock nuclear explosions.

Reid said there was no way to find out how far uranium or beryllium particles would travel and there was no plan to monitor contamination levels carried by the wind.

"This plan was poorly conceived from the start and could have wreaked havoc on the environment by contaminating areas around the Tonopah Test Range with uranium and other toxic materials," Reid said.