Ridge Sees Nevada Site as Fit for Anti-Terrorism Center

Homeland Security Director Thomas J. Ridge toured the Nevada Test Site on Wednesday and proclaimed afterward that it provides a “sterling” facility to train the nation’s anti-terrorism forces.

“It’s one thing to hear about it and to read about it, and it’s another thing to see it,” Ridge told Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) after viewing a mock exercise in which SWAT teams and others overwhelmed “terrorists” attempting to take over a nuclear laboratory for its fuel rods.

Reid and Gov. Kenny Guinn had invited Ridge to visit the site, hoping that the White House would declare it the “National Center for Counter-Terrorism” because of its size and accommodations to train emergency crews to deal with radiological, biological, chemical and other weapons of mass destruction.

Ridge stopped short of endorsing that notion, noting that other government facilities also train personnel to fight terrorists here and abroad.

Nonetheless, Ridge said, “I give a sterling endorsement of the facility, and I’ll work with Congress, the secretary of Energy and the Department of Defense to integrate what we can here.”

The idea of establishing a single anti-terrorism training facility “is a very intriguing option to create,” Ridge said. “I’m impressed with this facility. This is the only one with so many dimensions.”

The Nevada Test Site, where 928 nuclear detonations occurred from 1951 through 1992, has in recent years been used by the Justice Department and other agencies to train first responders--firefighters, paramedics, bomb squad members, hazardous material experts and others--who would arrive at a scene involving exposure to wide-scale lethal weapons.

They practice in full gear, fire off explosions and release low levels of radioactive material to add real-life stress to the training exercises.

Funding for the site has increased markedly since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks--an initial $7.5 million immediately after the attacks, an additional $10 million later and, in President Bush’s current budget, $10 million more.

The facility, operated by the National Nuclear Security Administration, trains about 3,000 personnel a year and hopes, with increased funding, to train 16,000 people next year.

“There’d be some extra jobs [for Nevadans], but it’s not so much that Nevada would benefit by this as the nation benefiting by making this nation a more secure place,” Reid said.

Reid, the Senate’s majority whip, said he didn’t expect to win an immediate commitment from Ridge after Wednesday’s visit. “But he said you have to come here to appreciate it, and now he has,” Reid said.

Selling the Nevada Test Site to the White House as an anti-terrorism center comes at the same time Nevada is fighting the selection of Yucca Mountain, 50 miles to the west, as the burial ground for highly radioactive nuclear waste. Bush last week gave the go-ahead for the Department of Energy to pursue development of Yucca Mountain.

Ridge had been set to visit the test site late last year, and the fact that his tour was delayed until now removes any appearances Nevada officials would be willing to give up Yucca Mountain in exchange for developing the anti-terrorism center.

“They’ve already made their decision on Yucca Mountain, and they know I will veto that,” said Guinn, referring to his authority to block the development of Yucca Mountain as a nuclear waste dump.

Guinn has two months to issue his formal objection, after which both houses of Congress have about 90 days to override his veto.

Ridge refused to discuss Yucca Mountain on Wednesday, but he told reporters that the protection of expended nuclear fuel “does have homeland security implications.”