Matheson still questions planned explosion

Rep. Jim Matheson met Thursday with Defense Threat Reduction Agency officials over a planned test explosion at the Nevada Test Site, but he still has questions about whether the test is a gateway to developing a new kind of nuclear weapon.

"That's still the issue I've got to pursue," Matheson said Friday via telephone.

Matheson, who supports continued research and development of conventional weapons, said he will ask for meetings with representatives of the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Agency and the Department of Defense.

At Thursday's meeting, Matheson learned that there will be air monitoring by helicopter before and after the so-called Divine Strake test. That decision on monitoring was made after a briefing of Washington officials last week at the Nevada Test Site.

But Matheson said he still wants a test of surface soils to determine if any radioactive materials exist at the test site prior to the blast.

"I think I'm going to get it, but we'll see," he said.

The Utah Democrat also asked DTRA officials for underground monitoring beneath the detonation and off-site monitoring downwind from the site conducted through the University of Nevada's Desert Research Institute.

And Matheson wants all of the results from the monitoring to be an open book.

"For good or bad, let's put it all out there for the public to see," he said. "Transparency and openness is the only way we should be doing this."

In an April 7 letter to DTRA Director James Tegnelia, Matheson said he was concerned that the public has not been given adequate assurances that the June 2 test is not a step toward "misguided attempts to build new low-yield nuclear devices."

In 2003 Congress repealed a ban on research and development of low-yield nuclear devices. After the appeal, however, the Defense Department and National Security Administration, told Congress that no actual weapon was being "stealthily" developed, according to Matheson.

The test in June will include the explosion of a 700-ton ammonium nitrate and fuel oil device to simulate an actual conventional bomb.

The DTRA is justifying the test by saying it "will develop a planning tool that will improve the warfighter's confidence in selecting the smaller proper nuclear yield necessary to destroy underground facilities while minimizing collateral damage."