Official says NTS not ready for more testing

Monday, Sept. 16, 2002 | 11:08 a.m.

Because of aging equipment and not enough people with the proper expertise, the Nevada Test Site is not ready to resume underground nuclear weapons experiments within three years, as the Energy Department has said, according to a new report.

Energy Department Inspector General Gregory Friedman said investigators found that resuming nuclear testing at the site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas, within three years would probably require funding and agency commitment that is typical of a presidential order to develop a new type of weapon.

In a reply to a Bush administration order to review nuclear testing readiness, the Energy Department earlier this year said it would take 18 to 36 months to prepare the Test Site for a nuclear weapons experiment.

The inspector general in a report released last week called that estimate into doubt.

"Based on our review of the current status of available human and physical resources, the department's ability to conduct an underground nuclear test within established parameters is at risk," Friedman wrote.

A White House spokesman was not immediately available for comment today.

Nevada's lawmakers in Congress say they support renewed testing, if there is compelling evidence that deemed it absolutely necessary for national security.

As the nation's nuclear arsenal ages, the Bush administration wants to speed up the timetable in case there is need for a full-scale weapons test.

In September 1992, then-President George Bush halted nuclear weapons testing though subcritical experiments that stop short of a nuclear reaction continue to test the safety of existing weapons.

After studying the site, federal investigators noted that equipment, unused in a decade, was wrapped in plastic and mothballed at the site and that almost 50 percent of the department's nuclear testing experts had left. Almost half of the remaining employees are eligible to retire in the next five years, the investigators said.

Several retired experts interviewed by the inspectors said a mentoring program put in place during the mid-1990s to try to replace the lost expertise did not provide enough experience in actual experiments.

"Specifically, plans were insufficient to fill key and critical positions," the report said.

The Test Site "has also not kept pace with advances made in technology," the report said. Several computer systems used in nuclear experiments are no longer able to operate.

Basic equipment is not ready, such as a processing plant used for preparing material to plug holes drilled to bury a nuclear weapon. Investigators found that the plant has been dismantled since 1992.

"The challenges posed by these issues were heightened, because (the Test Site) did not have a comprehensive plan to address or overcome them," the report said. "If the department becomes unable to certify that testing can resume within the 24- to 36-month window, it could eventually lose its ability to ensure weapons reliability through underground testing, should such testing become necessary."

Even preparing a nuclear experiment within two years or three years was at risk, based on the proposed funding level of $10 million a year, the report said. It would take an extra $5 million a year to ready the site for experiments.

The report urged the department to hire and train experts, develop a plan to test and replace equipment, update its testing readiness and computer programs.

Officials of the National Nuclear Security Administration, which operates the Test Site, agreed with many findings, noting that funding and expertise are not sufficient.

But in a letter responding to the audit they disagreed with the investigators' assessment of the Test Site's ability to conduct experiments if called upon to do so.

Managers at the Test Site said that testing readiness is maintained in case an unexpected "technical surprise" emerges in the U.S. stockpile of nuclear weapons.

They also noted that technical capabilities to design a nuclear experiment are in place in the national laboratories such as Lawrence Livermore in Northern California and Los Alamos in New Mexico.

However, more than half of key experts to conduct an underground nuclear test were in Nevada, the report noted.

Test Site managers said a plan to check aging equipment and identify what needs to be replaced, recommended in the audit, was not needed.

"NNSA is confident that the weapons complex could resume testing on a time scale appropriate to address such a problem," wrote Everet Beckner, deputy administrator for defense programs at the Test Site.

"Test readiness is an integral part of stockpile stewardship," Beckner wrote, adding the audit's statement that Nevada had not kept pace with technological advances "is factually incorrect."

The Test Site has already begun to update its safety procedures and has contacted retired scientists for updating its expertise in nuclear testing, he said.