Editorial: Leave no stone unturned

Sunday, March 5, 2000 | 9:09 a.m.

Nye County officials revealed last week that their tests showed radiation has been discovered in ground water outside the boundaries of the Nevada Test Site -- at levels 25 times higher than the standards the federal government allows for drinking water. Never before has testing documented radiation contaminating water outside the confines of the Test Site, which is located just 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Nevadans, understandably, are concerned about the potential impact to health and safety.

More tests are being conducted to ensure that the initial results aren't incorrect. No matter what is determined, though, the federal government needs to step up its monitoring of ground water inside the Test Site's borders and beyond. During the Cold War the government assured the public that atomic testing, including that done above ground and below ground in Nevada, was safe. But years later it was discovered that above-ground tests resulted in radiation traveling hundreds -- sometimes thousands -- of miles away. Some contend that the cancers they subsequently developed were due to the radioactive fallout from these explosions.

Meanwhile, the ground water tests also have implications for the federal government's efforts to build a nuclear waste repository in Nevada. There already has been sufficient geologic evidence that it is unsafe to store nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain. If, however, further tests determine that radiation is in ground water in Nye County at such high concentrations, then it is hard to imagine how nuclear dump proponents could possibly argue that Yucca Mountain is worthy of high-level nuclear waste. After all, if radiation from atomic tests can get into our ground water so fast after just several decades, who in their right mind would believe that 77,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste could be buried safely for several hundred years -- let alone 10,000 years? Only an irresponsible government would go forward with such a folly.