2006 Nuclear Tests Possible at Nevada Test Site

KLAS TV Las Vegas NVBrian Allen, Reporter

(Feb. 17) -- Eighteen months from now nuclear testing could resume at the Nevada Test Site. It's under federal orders to be ready to conduct new underground nuclear tests should the Bush Administration get approval.

Federal Energy Secretary Sam Bodman wants the Nevada Test Site ready within a year and half. The request comes as the Department of Energy asks Congress for $18 billion to develop earth-penetrating nuclear bombs. At the Nevada Test Site, they say they'll be ready.

More than 800 underground nuclear tests have been conducted at the test site. The number has held steady since ths last test 13 years ago.

Darwin Morgan is with the Nevada Test Site, "We will be ready within a year and a half to resume nuclear tests if the President directs us to do so."

The Bush Administration says new tests may be needed to ensure the nation's nuclear weapons stockpile still works. The last underground detonation at the test site happened in 1992. Since then, crews have kept the facility in working order.

"In these latter years, that's been doing the stockpile stewardship experiments at the test site as well we've maintained holes, tunnel complexes, other equipment," Morgan said.

The test site has to be ready for new underground testing by October of 2006. The equipment is in place, but what about the experts who carry out the tests? Many of whom have retired. Darwin Morgan says,"We have people that are out there are knowledgeable, that are part of the system and retirees that are still committed to the process."

That is correct, he said retirees. Experts with critical knowledge of underground testing can be recalled from retirement, forced back into service at the test site.

While the Bush Administration wants the test site ready by October of 2006, it doesn't mean nuclear tests will resume. But it does mean they can resume.