Nevada Test Site may have key role in dismantling nukes

Benjamin Grove

Tuesday, May 14, 2002 | 9:59 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- The Nevada Test Site could play a key role in dismantling nuclear weapons under a new agreement announced Monday by U.S. and Russian leaders.

The $100 million Device Assembly Facility was designed in the 1980s to put nuclear bombs together and support weapons tests, just a few years before the United States banned full-scale weapons testing in 1992. The expensive operation has been woefully underused since then, officials say.

The 100,000-square-foot facility can also be used to take bombs apart, officials say.

A defense spending authorization bill approved by the Senate Armed Service Committee directed the National Nuclear Security Administration to explore how the facility could be used to dismantle bombs. It was a timely directive; President Bush announced Monday the United States and Russia have agreed to slash their nuclear arsenals by two-thirds.

A report on the facility would be due March 1, according to the Senate bill, but it is too early to tell to what extent the high-tech, earth-covered building would be used, Tessa Hafen, spokeswoman for Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said.

In related news a Pennsylvania lawmaker has proposed a new nuclear weapons information exchange program that could involve Nevada Test Site officials and their counterparts in Russia.

Republican Rep. Curt Weldon last week attached a "precedent-setting" amendment to a House defense spending bill that would lead to greater transparency in U.S.-Russian weapons programs, Weldon said.

The legislation also could pave the way for exchange visits between Test Site officials and Russian nuclear weapons test experts.

Such visits have not been conducted in 14 years. On Aug 17, 1988, a delegation of roughly 30 Soviet scientists and weapons experts visited the Nevada Test Site for an underground test dubbed Kearsarge; a Test Site delegation witnessed a similar test at the Semipalatinsk test site in Kazakhstan the following month, Test Site spokesman Darwin Morgan said.

Since then, the former Soviet republic and the United States have banned full-scale nuclear weapons tests. The underground Divider test on Sept. 23, 1992, marked the 828th and final underground test at the Test Site. The United States and Russia continue smaller-scale experiments called subcritical tests.

Weldon thinks now is the perfect time for more U.S.-Russian cooperation, in part to better ensure weapons material does not fall into the hands of terrorists, Weldon spokesman Bud DeFlaviis said.

"Working with our Russian counterparts will not only increase our capabilities, it will eliminate the global threat posed by the unchecked proliferation of nuclear weapons, material and technology," Weldon said last week.

Department of Energy spokeswoman Lisa Cutler said it was too early to tell how Weldon's amendment could affect the Test Site. Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., supports the amendment, but he also is not sure yet what kinds of information Test Site workers and their Russian counterparts could share, spokeswoman Amy Spanbauer said.

Observers stress that the Weldon amendment is not final; it is attached to a defense bill that still must be debated and approved by House-Senate negotiators.

Weldon, a longtime advocate for stronger U.S-Russia relations, plans to pursue his proposal later this month when he visits Russia with a congressional delegation. Weldon co-authored "A New Time, A New Beginning," a 44-page blueprint for better relations and new projects with Russia.