Test site will get name change

Congress set out to modernize the mission of the Nevada Test Site and eventually change the name it's had for the past 57 years with Senate passage Tuesday of the defense authorization bill.

The 93-7 vote sent the measure to President Barack Obama with an amendment by Nevada's senators that charges the head of the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration with "renaming the site to reflect the expanded mission."

That "expanded mission," according to the amendment by Sens. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and John Ensign, R-Nev., will focus on developing methods to verify treaties and reduce nuclear security threats "while continuing to support the nation's nuclear weapons program and other national security programs."

The act provides $89 million for defense-related projects in Nevada but doesn't specify what the new name should be for the place that was first called the Nevada Proving Grounds in 1951 and changed about a year later to the Nevada Test Site.

Last month, managers of the test site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas, said they envision it becoming home to a new National Center for Nuclear Security where experts on treaty verification, counterterrorism and nonproliferation will huddle to chart the nation's course for achieving national goals.

Among the objectives is to support threat reduction programs "of the entire national security community" including those under the NNSA, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, the Department of Homeland Security, "and other agencies as appropriate," the amendment states.

Last month, Stephen M. Younger, president of the test site's prime contractor, National Security Technologies, touted a nuclear security center as "the biggest thing at the site in many decades."

According to Younger and NNSA Nevada Site Office Manager Stephen Mellington the test site's modernized mission will include more work with U.S. intelligence agencies and authorities on international nuclear security. Tasks will range from developing countermeasures for would-be nuclear terrorists to helping the Pentagon's effort to detect roadside bombs, and some other classified projects.

The test site's broadened scope will augment its long-standing mission to check and certify that the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile is safe and reliable.

Contact reporter Keith Rogers at krogers@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0308.