Utah senators seek protection from Nevada nuke testing

Benjamin Grove

Friday, Sept. 17, 2004 | 11:50 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Utah's senators have introduced a bill to protect the state's "downwinders" if nuclear weapons are tested again at the Nevada Test Site.

But Utah Republican Sens. Robert Bennett and Orrin Hatch say their bill, introduced Sept. 7, was not in response to any recent signal from the White House or Pentagon that President Bush intends to order a new generation of underground blasts.

"This just puts additional safeguards into the law," Bennett spokeswoman Mary Jane Collipriest said.

Renewed testing at the storied Nevada nuclear proving grounds has long been a matter of speculation. President Bush has not signaled that he wants new tests, but Pentagon officials have said they might be necessary to test old warheads or to develop new ones.

The bill would specifically require the energy secretary to notify the public of the time, date and place of any new test seven days before the test.

Further, the bill would require:

The Bennett-Hatch bill also would create new grants for independent radiation testing; an academic center under the National Institutes of Health to study radiation and human health; and a study of anyone exposed to radiation during testing.

President Bush has asked the NNSA to shorten the amount of time the Test Site would need to become ready for new underground nuclear experiments, if ordered, while stressing that he has no plans to order tests.

In separate letters from Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz and NNSA Director Linton Brooks, the Bush administration officials reassured the Utah lawmakers that there have been no shifts in that stance.

Bennett was concerned that the administration's interest in the development of a nuclear bunker buster bomb might require new tests. But Wolfowitz assured him that the Bush administration had "no plans" to conduct underground tests of the "Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator," or RNEP.

If the administration decided to move from study to eventual testing of the bomb in Nevada, Bush would request the test money from Congress and lawmakers could have their say on it then, Wolfowitz wrote.

Brooks went further, saying that the NNSA believes that resuming testing to certify the RNEP is "not an option."

Brooks also implied that the tests probably were unnecessary. The study of the RNEP is centered on reconfiguring two existing nuclear weapons, Brooks wrote. "Both are well-proven systems with an extensive test pedigree from the 1970s and 1980s," Brooks wrote.

The Test Site is an expanse of desert larger than Rhode Island, with its nearest border 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas. It was home to 928 full-scale nuclear tests, most underground, from 1951 to 1992, when a moratorium was declared by President Bush's father.

Utah lawmakers are keenly interested in the prospect of renewed testing because many residents of the state developed radiation-related diseases after the Nevada tests.

"We must not jeopardize the health and safety of our citizens as we work to protect our national security," Bennett said. "Utahns have already paid too high a price."