It's a simple concept: close the Nevada Test Site.  Close it, and keep cleaning it up until the radiation is gone, or safe enough for people who are downwind and downstream and also for the next 'custodians' of the land, including the Western Shoshone (the 'first' custodians) and the Bureau of Land Management, the caretaker of public lands .  

The NTS should have been closed after nuclear testing stopped in 1992.  Since the NTS sits on land "withdrawn" from public use for the purpose of "weapons testing," and that purpose - the reason for occupying the land - no longer applies, the land ought to be returned to the former owners.  

But that didn't happen.  The reason it didn't happen and the reasons you may hear for the NTS' continued existence are not so simple.   

So, you may ask why is it such a big deal to push for its closure?  Why is it such an important goal?   What are the rationales for keeping the NTS open?  What are the benefits - and to whom - of an 'open NTS'? 

The answer lies in the below series of axioms, or truths (both proposed and established ones).  You can agree, or not, with the axioms and their flow.  Hopefully you'll find that the logic flows.  And if you do, you'll agree that closing the NTS would be a good thing, except for the hard-working employees who won't be part of the long-term cleanup crews.  Learn more about the NTS here

You can play a role in our campaign to close the NTS by submitting your comments on the NTS Environmental Impact Statement.  You can send your comments on that document during the comment period that commences in late 2009.  In the meantime learn more about the NTS EIS.

A SET OF AXIOMS FOR THE CLOSURE OF THE NEVADA TEST SITE:

Axiom A - The only reason the NTS has ever existed is to have a place to test nuclear weapons;

Axiom B - The U.S. nuclear posture has not abandoned the idea of nuclear weapons development;

Axiom C - Nuclear weapons development requires a location where, when necessary, conducting full-scale tests on nuclear device designs is possible and most acceptable to the public;

Axiom D - Because of (B) and (C), the federal government recognizes (A) and doesn't want the NTS closed;

Axiom E - Any function that does not equate with (A) - other than cleanup - at the NTS can be performed at any other facility;

Axiom F - The only reason why full environmental remediation - cleanup - is not a top priority is because of (D);

Axiom G - The only reason to test a nuclear weapon is to validate the effectiveness of the device for its ultimate use;

Axiom H - The continued testing of nuclear weapons, or of their components or materials, because of (G),
creates a 'crisis of confidence' with all other nations;

Axiom I - Other nations have joined and are joining the 'nuclear club' because of (H);

Axiom J - Axiom B has been the only U.S. reaction to Axiom I;

Axiom K - The only victims of nuclear weapons since World War II have been citizens of nuclear nations themselves;

Axiom L - The NTS ensures the continuation of a vicious trend whereas because of (D) and (I), worldwide nuclear proliferation and (I) will increase, and, also due to (F), (K) will only grow in validity;

Axiom M - Because of (L), closing the NTS is the best means to mitigate and lessen its dangerous impacts on current and future human suffering worldwide.

"In late 1988 and 1989, when anti-nuclear publicity was rampant, you can barely find any stories about the Nevada Test Site. Other facilities are talked about a lot, but the most sacred spot was the test site. It's kind of an axiom of mass media coverage that the more important something is--the more important something is in human terms--the less coverage it should get. So the Nevada Test Site got almost no coverage at all. It's a DOE facility. It's an environmental catastrophe. There's plenty of documentation to that effect, but the Nevada Test Site wasn't talked about because if you shut down the test site you have to shut down the nuclear weapons escalation game. And it's a game that is of course very lucrative. It's a game that the nuclear weapons labs and the contractors and the people in the Pentagon love to play. So the Nevada Test Site is virtually unknown to most people in the United States. . . ."  - Speech by Norman Solomon on February 24, 1992 - source

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Idealist's public document archives: 1. 2.

U.S. NUCLEAR tests: 128 A + 899 U in NV,
1 A in NM, 10 U (in NM, CO, AK, MS, central NV),
100+ A, U in Pacific, 3 A in S. Atlantic
(A=aboveground; U=Underground)

'The greatest irony of our atmospheric nuclear testing program is that 
the only victims of U.S. nuclear arms since World War II have been our own people.' 
- Forgotten Guinea Pigs Report, 1980

In 1986, the U.S. Dept. of Energy used the cover of the Chernobyl fallout cloud over the United States to release huge amounts of radiation into the air from a failed underground Nevada nuclear test. It was called Mighty Oak.

learn more on our global fallout page

 

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