Monday, March 24, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
With the U.S. Department of Energy's blessing, Kistler Aerospace Corp. could launch communications satellites from the Nevada Test Site by 1998.
The DOE announced this month that it agreed to allow Kistler launching space at Area 18 in the northwest corner of the Test Site, the nation's former nuclear weapons experimental center.
Kistler has applied for a license from the Federal Aviation Administration, the last hurdle to the first project for expanding commercial uses at the Test Site, said Tim Carlson, president of the Nevada Test Site Development Corp.
"We're working very hard and fast on Kistler Aerospace," Carlson said.
Even the Air Force, a formidable player in any use of air space in Nevada, appears ready to sign off on the project, Carlson said.
The project could bring 100 jobs to the Test Site, which could have fewer than 3,000 workers by the end of this year. At the height of the government's nuclear testing in the 1980s, more than 10,000 people worked at the Test Site.
Other possible projects include the production of hydrogen as an alternate fuel. NRG Technologies is interested in experimenting with hydrogen-powered vehicles on the site 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
And the Center for Sustainable Technology, a consortium of Bechtel National and the Electric Power Research Institute of Palo Alto, Calif., is ready to explore stationary generators fueled by hydrogen, reducing air pollution produced by fossil fuels by 90 percent.
The NTS Corp. with Bechtel Nevada, manager of the Test Site, Arthur D. Little and Desert Research Institute are working on a grant to the DOE for funding commercial hydrogen vehicles with Troy Design Manufacturing Co. of Dearborn, Mich.
Carlson would serve as project director for the hydrogen vehicle venture.
"It's an exciting time for the Test Site," Carlson said.
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