Nuke fuel route supposed to stay out of LV Valley

Monday, Sept. 23, 2002 | 9:04 a.m.

The Energy Department has promised Gov. Kenny Guinn to keep nuclear weapons-grade fuel shipments planned for shipment from New Mexico to the Nevada Test Site off Hoover Dam and out of the Las Vegas Valley.

The National Nuclear Security Administration on Friday published its intent by 2006 or 2007 to start shipments of plutonium, uranium and four reactors currently at a facility in New Mexico to the Test Site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

A decision on which route the shipments will take has not been announced.

The National Nuclear Security Administration is part of the Energy Department and manages the weapons inventory, weapons components, weapons fuel and operations at the Test Site.

Before the shipments begin, the special laboratory at the Test Site has to be prepared for receiving the equipment, a statement on the project said.

It would be the first time the federal government has moved large amounts of nuclear weapons fuel containing plutonium and uranium to the Test Site to enhance the safety of future experiments.

The next step in the plan will be a notice published by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency about the project, James Rose of the Energy Department's relocation project said.

Energy Department officials said the Test Site is the best location because New Mexico's Los Alamos National Laboratory site was aging and forest fires nearby in 2000 also posed a possible threat. The New Mexico site also failed a mock attack by a government oversight team the same year.

The Energy Department estimates it will cost about $100 million to ship more than two tons of plutonium, more than 12 tons of depleted uranium and four reactors to Nevada.

An alternative plan to keep the nuclear weapons fuel at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico would have cost between $80 million and $90 million for refinishing walls at the aging complex.

The Test Site's $100 million Device Assembly Facility, completed in 1998, is a sophisticated laboratory designed to assemble nuclear weapons for experiments at the Test Site. While the facility was planned during the early 1980s, when nuclear testing was at its height, no nuclear experiments have been conducted at the Test Site since 1992.

A nonprofit watchdog group, the Project on Government Oversight, applauded the Energy Department's decision. The group had been lobbying for better security of the nuclear materials after the mock attack penetrated the New Mexico facility.

The New Mexico facility, built in the 1940s, was located down a steep canyon and vulnerable to aggressive attackers, the oversight project's report said.

The Nevada congressional delegation has had mixed reactions to the plan. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., wants assurances that the material, if it is brought to the Test Site, is shipped safely, spokeswoman Tessa Hafen said.

Rep. Shelley Berkeley, D-Nev., recognizes the Test Site as the nation's premier facility for nuclear weapons, but objects to Nevada being the only solution to securing nuclear materials.

Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., is reviewing the move, a spokeswoman said.