DOE: Spending at Test Site not wasteful

A congressional investigation has concluded that the U.S. Department of Energy is wasting $20 million a year on experiments at the Nevada Test Site.

The General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, issued its report in late July after a six-month examination of DOE spending.

The DOE disagreed with the findings, saying it is on target to conduct four subcritical tests this calendar year.

Subcritical tests, which are conducted for national security, allow scientists to study what happens to nuclear material inside a weapon without triggering a full-scale nuclear explosion.

Officials with Bechtel Nevada, the firm contracted to manage the Test Site, said the experimental area 1,000 feet underground was not adequate to conduct up to four tests a year, the GAO report said.

Bechtel denies making the statement, spokesman Greg Cook said. A subcontractor at the Test Site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas, made the statement to the GAO, not Bechtel, he said.

"We disagree with the GAO's conclusion," Cook said.

GAO investigators questioned about $65 million in funds for the DOE's defense program for 1999, including the Test Site's share.

"For example, up to $20 million may not be needed for subcritical nuclear experiments at the Nevada Test Site because constraints at the site's underground facility limit the number of tests that can be performed," said the report to Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., chairman of the House Subcommittee on Military Procurement.

Cook said a subcritical test named "Stagecoach" has been conducted this year. Three more subcritical experiments -- "Bagpipe," "Cimarron" and "Clarinet" -- are proposed before the year ends, he said.

However, the cavern where the experiments are conducted needs more ventilation and safer entrances for workers, Cook said.

Improvements at the experimental complex are under way, Cook said, since it involves worker safety.

The GAO launched its investigation into the DOE's proposed budget with more than half of it dedicated to environmental management and defense programs at DOE sites across the nation.

The report also criticized the DOE's plans to spend $110 million in environmental management. Under environmental cleanup, the DOE is testing, monitoring and clearing radioactive and toxic wastes at national sites used to develop nuclear weapons in the past 50 years.

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