Homeland Security cancels Strip nuclear response training

By Richard N. Velotta

Thursday, Dec. 3, 2009 | 11:52 a.m.

The Department of Homeland Security has canceled a Federal Emergency Management Agency training exercise that would have simulated the detonation of a nuclear device on the Las Vegas Strip.

Sen. Harry Reid’s office today confirmed the cancellation of the exercise for first responders that had been scheduled for May 2010. Reid and several Southern Nevada tourism and business leaders objected to the scenario, suggesting that it could create unnecessary anxiety to efforts to boost tourism and investment in Las Vegas.

“I thank the Department of Homeland Security for considering my letter to Secretary (Janet) Napolitano and reaching the decision to cancel this exercise so quickly,” Reid said in a statement issued this morning.

“At a time when Las Vegas is beginning to show signs of improvement, including the first increase in tourism in a year, an exercise of this magnitude would have created unnecessary anxiety and possibly undo our efforts to strengthen the engine of Nevada’s economy.”

Reid said he would work with Napolitano and FEMA to develop an opportunity for first responders to participate in another exercise.

A Nov. 19 letter to Napolitano from Reid was backed by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, the Nevada Hotel & Lodging Association, the Nevada Development Authority and several chambers of commerce.

“I am deeply sympathetic to the need of our first responders to conduct preparedness training and I look forward to revisiting this issue when Nevada’s economy has improved,” Reid said in his letter to Napolitano.