Sunday, October 26, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

THE BUSINESS OF DEFENSE: All new site lines

PHOTOS COURTESY OF BECHTEL A group of first responders participates in a chemical weapons training exercise at the Nevada Test Site in this undated photo. In fiscal 2003, more than 5,000 firefighters, police officers, and other likely first responders received counterterrorism training at the site. The Atlas pulse power machine, scheduled to come on line next spring, will play a vital role in the Nevada Test Site's efforts to test the viability of the nation's nuclear weapons stockpile. The U1a complex at the Nevada Test Site, an underground laboratory of horizontal tunnels, is used to test nuclear weapons viability and other scientific experiments vital to national defense. "We're going to be back to a $1 billion a year operation within the next 10 years." FRED TARANTINO PRESIDENT AND GENERAL MANAGER, BECHTEL NEVADA Bechtel Nevada employees Natasha Checkovich, left, and Teri Allison inspect a "racklet" used to test nuclear weapons in the U1a complex at the Nevada Test Site.

It's been more than 11 years since the last nuclear device was detonated at the Nevada Test Site, but business is once again booming at the vast desert testing ground.

During its Cold War-era heyday, the test site's various contractors often generated nearly $1 billion in combined annual revenue. Approximately 12,000 locals were part of a daily bus caravan along the old Tonopah Highway, traveling between the Las Vegas Valley and jobs with test site contractors such as Reynolds Electrical & Engineering Co.; Raytheon Co.; and Edgerton, Germeshausen and Grier.

After the federal government stopped nuclear testing in October 1992, those numbers dipped as low as 1,800 on-site workers producing annual revenue of about $200 million.

But recent events -- most notably the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks -- have put the test site back on track to approach its previous revenue levels, possibly within a decade, said Fred Tarantino, president and general manager of Bechtel Nevada.

"During the Cold War, the test site was a stalwart of national defense," said Tarantino. "We're in the process of transforming the site from its Cold War defense mission to its defense mission for the (21st) century and a new range of defense needs."

Bechtel Nevada manages operations at the test site and its related facilities and laboratories on behalf of the National Nuclear Security Administration, a division of the U.S. Department of Energy.

The federal government has no plans to reinstate nuclear testing. But with its remote, secure areas spanning 1,375 square miles of unpopulated mountainous desert beginning 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas, the test site is an ideal place for first response crews to be trained on handling chemical, biological and radiological incidents, Tarantino said.

In addition, American military personnel often use the site to train in isolation, while nearby scientists and engineers monitor the environment and evaluate the readiness of the nation's nuclear weapons arsenal.

"We focused our growth efforts on those parts of the market, this high-end testing, training and evaluation market, which we think is a $20 billion market (per year)," Tarantino said. "With the terrorist threat, you need a highly secure facility. And in addition, (the test site) really has a highly skilled work force that includes construction workers, miners, scientists, engineers and technicians.

"It's a unique integration of a lot of diverse skills. There's nothing else like it in the United States."

When Tarantino took control of Bechtel Nevada in August 2001, the company was a about month away from ending a fiscal year that produced annual revenue of about $318 million.

Thanks to its renewed focus, Bechtel Nevada earned $460 million in fiscal 2003 and is expected to produce revenue of more than $500 million this fiscal year, with business continually to improve as existing programs expand and new ones are added.

"We're going to be back to a $1 billion a year operation within the next 10 years," Tarantino projected.

Bechtel Nevada has about 3,000 employees, up from around 2,000 two years ago. About 1,200 of those workers are typically based at the test site, up from approximately 800 two years ago.

Though it's unlikely the test site will ever resume its past role as one of Southern Nevada's largest employers, Tarantino said it remains a viable economic player.

"What we're going to be able to do is provide a substantial means for diversification of the local area because we are hiring scientists, engineers," said Tarantino. "We're giving local kids with an interest in science the chance to find jobs in their fields without leaving Southern Nevada."

Tarantino said Bechtel Nevada has hired more than 20 graduates of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas' engineering program in recent years. The company has also joined with UNLV to develop a cooperative program for weapons of mass destruction first-response training and is working to form an academic department covering radiation detection and measurement. Such partnerships could lead to new business opportunities, Tarantino said.

"For example, radiation emission detection technologies have been pioneered at the test site," he said. "The market for smaller sized detection devices that could fit on a policeman's belt or inside shipping containers offers huge potential.

"Our research, we hope, will someday lead private industries to be able to manufacture devices that can serve markets throughout the country."

In addition, Tarantino said Bechtel Nevada awarded more than $40 million in subcontracts to local businesses in fiscal 2003, a trend he also expects will grow as business picks up.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., described the test site as a vital resource for national security and said he's worked hard to expand its current programs.

"It's a good facility. We should use it more," said Reid, who criticized the Energy Department for overcharging private companies that wish to use the test site more extensively. "Where else can you test what happens when certain chemicals hit the ground? Where else can we find caves and bunkers like those others are trying to fortify and see what we can do against those defenses?"

Although business at the test site has recently increased in several sectors, perhaps no area illustrates that trend better than counter-terrorism and disaster response training.

In fiscal 2003, which concluded Sept. 30, Bechtel Nevada's Counter Terrorism Operations Support Project welcomed more than 5,000 firefighters, police officers, National Guard members and other likely first responders who received graduate-level instruction on handling the so-called "three Gs": gas, gamma and guns.

From 1998 through 2001, only 1,203 people took part in such courses.

"This is the only place in the country that combines all three courses," said Graham Giles, deputy project manager for Bechtel Nevada's counter terrorism program. "(Trainees) can exercise the same techniques and tactics they'd use in the real world" including a mock emergency operations center, disaster response planning and "train the trainer" courses that extend lessons learned at the test site to other communities throughout the United States.

The test site's rugged hills and mountains also make an ideal training ground for covert military units employed in the nation's anti-terror military campaigns, Tarantino said.

"It's a very realistic training environment; it looks like Afghanistan and Southwest Asia," said Tarantino, who declined to offer specifics on what types of military units have trained at the test site.

Despite a moratorium on full-scale nuclear testing, the federal government still requires the test site be maintained should tests again become necessary. Unable to conduct live tests, Bechtel Nevada workers now employ scientific tests that duplicate the effects of a live blast using subcritical explosions. Tarantino cited the Jasper gas gun and Atlas pulse power machines as two key elements in the test site's latest testing initiatives.

The test site is also one of five locations being considered for the proposed Modern Pit Facility, where new plutonium "pits" would be manufactured to help maintain the nation's existing nuclear weapons stockpile. The United States has been unable to produce such pits, which are used to trigger nuclear devices, since an older plant in Rocky Flats, Colo., was ruled unsafe and shut down in 1989.

U.S. Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham will likely decide on the project's viability sometime before next April. If he elects to proceed, a site designation is also expected at the time of Abraham's announcement.

Tarantino believes the test site would make an ideal location for the proposed $2 billion to $4 billion project, which is expected to employ more than 1,000 people and generate operating costs of $200 million to $300 million a year.

However, the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects has opposed placing such a facility in the state, citing factors that include the proposed Yucca Mountain repository, health and environmental threats, and the likelihood that a Modern Pit Facility would require additional radioactive material to be trucked through the Las Vegas Valley.

Antinuclear activists have also derided the modern pit project, saying it is unnecessary and could help reignite a global nuclear arms buildup.

Despite such opposition, Tarantino remains bullish on the Nevada Test Site's potential.

"If we don't get it, that's OK," Tarantino. "We'll go after something just as a large."

Bechtel Nevada is not directly involved with the proposed nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain, though that project is handled by Bechtel Science Applications International Corp., an affiliate.