Homeland Security chief cancels tour of Nevada Test Site

Tuesday, Jan. 8, 2002 | 12:44 p.m.

LAS VEGAS AP) - Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge won't visit the Nevada Test Site this week with state officials who want to make it the nation's main counterterrorism training center.

Ridge canceled Wednesday's tour of the vast test site with Nevada Sens. Democrat Harry Reid and Republican John Ensign, Ridge's spokesman said Monday.

Gordon Johndroe said Ridge was forced to postpone trips to Nevada and New Mexico because of meetings in Washington on budget issues and President Bush's upcoming State of the Union address.

"Gov. Ridge hopes to get out there sometime in the future," Johndroe said.

Ridge still plans to travel this week to Salt Lake City to discuss security issues for the Winter Olympics, Johndroe said.

Reid, the Senate's No. 2 Democrat, has been leading the effort to turn the 1,350-square-mile site northwest of Las Vegas into a center to train police, firefighters and public health workers to respond to terrorism.

Nevada lawmakers have advocated the proposal for years, but it has received renewed attention since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The test site already is used several times a year for limited bioterrorism training for emergency responders from around the nation.

Underground tunnels served as laboratories for some of the nearly 1,000 nuclear weapons tests conducted at the site from 1951 until such tests were banned in 1992.

Reid envisions diverse exercises, from special operations forces and military officers training to hunt terrorists to emergency workers training for a biological weapons attack.