The future of the Nevada Test Site (NTS) for the next two decades probably rests with decisions taken by Congress in 2000 as they deliberate and debate the budget for 2001 and beyond. The responsible decision-makers will have to decide on an appropriate mission for the NTS, something that does not exist at the moment.
The NTS, which will celebrate its 50th birthday on December 18, 2000, has long been a centerpiece for the defense of the nation. The mission of the NTS over those years has been the research and testing of the nuclear weapons that provided the nuclear deterrent for the nation. That mission ended in 1992, when President Clinton decided that the U.S. would meet the intent of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. Although activities at the site have continued in a dramatically reduced scale, there is no mission that can be measured by more than just the current budget cycle.
I propose that we look beyond the weapons testing history of the NTS and look at what it really has become; namely, the preeminent location for conducting tests of both hazardous and non-hazardous materials. The defense business of the NTS today involves testing the equation-of-state of materials, and plans exist for the construction of a pulsed power machine, called Atlas, that would take materials science to the next level. The proposed spaceport in the northern part of the NTS would test new space vehicles and support routine launches of the successful ones. The NTS routinely supports tests of new procedures associated with hazardous chemicals at the Spill Test Facility and is now sponsoring testing of alternatively fueled vehicles. On the books are expressions of interest from other test programs that would like to come to the NTS.
It is time for Congress, led by the Nevada delegation, to recognize the NTS as the nation's foremost test location by re-naming it the National Test and Evaluation Center and establishing, as a mission for the new center, the test and evaluation of programs that serve the national interests, both government and private. The new center would be funded in a way that the defense component remained the core, but other programs could come and "use" the NTS had its infrastructure for only the costs associated with conducting their program.
Think of it: the NTS becomes the National Test and Evaluation Center and brings with it a new mission that can be measured in decades.
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