Nuke blasts may resume at Test Site

Tuesday, Jan. 8, 2002 | 10:47 a.m.

SUN STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration plans to "raise the possibility" of resuming underground nuclear bomb tests at the Nevada Test Site, the Washington Post reported today.

But administration officials, including Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, denied that possibility.

The administration completed a review of its nuclear strategy -- a confidential report presented to Congress today -- but it does not recommend resuming nuclear tests, Rumsfeld said.

Congress was to be briefed on the report, known as the Nuclear Posture Review, today.

Quoting unnamed Energy Department sources, the Post said the review will say the United States needs to be able to resume testing at the Test Site in less than the two years it would now take under department guidelines.

Advocates argue that the nation's aging nuclear stockpile should be tested to maintain weapon reliability, the Post reported.

The idea of resuming tests is to be brought up during congressional briefings, the story said.

Following a television interview at the Pentagon, Rumsfeld was asked about the Post story. Rumsfeld declined to directly discuss the review, saying it is highly classified.

But asked whether it contained a formal recommendation to resume testing, he replied, "Absolutely not."

"It certainly doesn't recommend resuming testing," he added.

A White House official who declined to be named told the Sun today, "This is not an endorsement, or commitment or even a recommendation to resume testing at all. The administration -- the United States -- is committed to the moratorium on testing."

The Post quoted one source as saying, "They do not want to say they are going to resume testing. They want the option to do so if they think they need it."

More information about the nuclear strategy would be available at a press briefing Wednesday, Pentagon officials said.

Sens. John Ensign, R-Nev., and Harry Reid, D-Nev., said that they could support resuming tests if the administration deemed it necessary.

Ensign said experts should decide if there is a need to resume tests, his spokeswoman, Traci Scott, said. "If it's in the national interest, yes, he would support it."

Reid has supported a test ban treaty with other nations, but "he understands the need to maintain our national security profile," his spokesman, Nathan Naylor, said.

Reps. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., and Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., are out of the country, and aides declined to comment.

Gov. Kenny Guinn was unavailable for comment this morning, and Bob Loux, director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects, said he was not certain about the stance state officials would take on a proposal to renew tests.

It was not immediately clear how any recommendations would affect a proposal to establish a national counterterrorism school at the Test Site. Nevada lawmakers strongly back that plan.

Nuclear bomb tests were banned by President Bush's father in 1992, after nearly 1,000 tests dating from the 1950s.

Nations around the world, including numerous allies, likely would strongly object to the United States testing nuclear weapons.

Peace organizations and anti-nuclear activists slammed the suggestion.

"When we first got wind of this a few weeks ago it was almost laughable," said Erik Olsen, campaign coordinator for the Washington-based group 20/20 Vision. "Now it's not so funny anymore. The ramifications of this, especially internationally, are going to be huge. The uproar is going to be massive."

The Post report said the nuclear strategy review also will contain the administration's justification for reducing strategic warheads over the next decade from roughly 6,000 to 2,100 proposed by Bush during a meeting last month with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In December Bush announced that the United States will pull out of the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty so it can test and build a missile defense system to protect against terrorists and rogue nations.

U.S. and Russian officials are supposed to begin talks on making new cuts in their strategic nuclear arms, even though they continue to disagree over the U.S. pullout from the treaty.

Bush proposed cutting U.S. long-range nuclear warheads by about two-thirds, while Russia has said it would bring its warheads down to between 1,500 and 2,200.

Sun reporter Benjamin Grove and the Associated Press contributed to this article.