Columnist Jeff German: Test Site workers scrooged

Friday, Dec. 20, 2002 | 11:21 a.m.

What's wrong with this scenario?

Not only do President Bush and his Department of Energy want to send the nation's deadly nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain, but now they want to cut jobs at the nearby Nevada Test Site.

It's their way of saying "Merry Christmas" to Nevada.

This is the same Test Site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas, that Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham has said will play an important role in homeland security for years to come.

And it's the same Test Site which, through its recently started stockpile stewardship program, has the lead role in making sure American nuclear weapons all over the world are safe and reliable.

No wonder Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., says the National Nuclear Security Administration, which manages the Test Site for the DOE, is "penny wise and a pound foolish" for announcing major cutbacks in the work force at the 51-year-old nuclear testing ground.

Or just mean-spirited.

The NNSA, just in time for Christmas, said it's eliminating 157 of the 237 technical and administrative jobs at the Test Site. The Scrooge-like edict, part of the NNSA's plan to streamline operations, is forcing DOE workers to either transfer out of Nevada or lose their jobs.

Overall the NNSA is looking to reduce its work force by nearly 20 percent by October 2004. But in Nevada 66 percent of the jobs already have been cut.

Once more the state is being screwed.

But this time the DOE also is hurting its local allies in the hard-fought battle over Yucca Mountain -- the loyal Test Site workers and others, such as Troy Wade, a former Test Site manager.

You could consider Wade sympathetic to the DOE's push to send the nation's 77,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste to the state. He's among those who believed that Nevada should have negotiated billions of dollars in benefits for Yucca Mountain before Bush signed off on the project. Nevada officials didn't negotiate because they thought it would undermine the state's opposition to the dump, which is 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Today, now that many of his friends are losing their jobs, Wade probably sees why Nevada leaders were leery of sitting down at the bargaining table with the DOE.

"This is hard to understand," Wade said. "Energy Secretary Abraham is saying how important the Test Site is going to be in the next couple of decades, and then here's the same guy who's holding the purse strings saying we're going to cut you back. That's tough on morale."

Because of the 1992 moratorium on nuclear weapons testing, the 1,375-square-mile Test Site has been redefining itself in recent years.

It has a facility that provides bioterrorism training for emergency responders, and it's in the running to become the country's main counterterrorism training center.

And because of its responsibility to provide experts and equipment to examine the nation's nuclear arsenal, the Test Site remains an integral part of the weapons program.

So by gutting its work force, the DOE has done more than just slight Nevada for the umpteenth time. It may have harmed national security.

"For the DOE to cut back the staff is really unbelievable," Reid said. "They have cut back our ability to maintain a safe and reliable nuclear stockpile."

And the timing of the personnel cuts, less than a week before Christmas? Well, that's just atrocious.

It's something we've come to expect from the DOE -- particularly during the Bush administration.

Merry Christmas to you, too, Mr. President.