New role for test site

It appears the Nevada Test Site will finally receive a new mission, 17 years after the last US nuclear test occurred there. The Senate’s version of a 2010 appropriations bill for the Department of Defense includes an amendment offered by the state’s two senators instructing the Department of Energy to rename the NTS and to officially assign it the new role as the center for verifying nuclear arms reduction treaties.

In the post-cold war years, the 3561-km² NTS has been limited to performing tests that produce no nuclear yield. The NTS has also trained personnel on criticality safety and in safeguarding nuclear materials. The site is supposed to maintain the capability to resume nuclear tests within 18 months. But in an interview with the Las Vegas Sun earlier this year, Stephen Younger, president of National Security Technologies, the site contractor, said less than 1% of the NTS budget now goes to maintaining that readiness.