N-blast ‘excites’ secretary

Press, 7 August 1982, Page 9

N-blast ‘excites’ secretary

By

WALLACE TURNER

of

the New York times News Service Mercury, Nevada The United States Energy Secretary (Mr James Edwards) witnessed a nuclear bomb explosion for the first time yesterday morning and said he found it "exciting." The nuclear test was the first in two years to be opened to viewing by reporters. Answering a question. Mr Edwards denied that his visit had been timed to coincide for publicity reasons with the anniversary- of the bombing of Hiroshima on August 6. 1945. and . with yesterday’s debate in Congress on nuclear issues.

In a news conference at the Nevada test site he also said that President Harry S. Truman had made the right decision 37 years ago, in using the world's first nuclear weapons against the Japanese, and promised that the Reagan Administration would continue to test bombs. Of critics of nuclear armament spending programmes, he said: "I wish we had them in Red Square asking for-a nuclear freeze — they don't allow that kind of political discussion over there."

"The thing they're talking about is the weapon that can preserve their ability for free political discussion," he said.

The nuclear weapon that exploded at 1.30 a.m. yesterday (N.Z. time) 650 metres under the desert at Yucca

Flats, produced the gentle wave-like rocking of the Earth that has become familiar around Nevada in three decades of testing. Code-named Atrisco. the nuclear test was the eleventh announced this year. The blast force was said by Department of Energy spokesmen to be in the 20 to 150 kiloton range. One kiloton in this sense is equal to the explosive energy of 1000 tonnes of T.N'.T.

Drill rigs continued later to put down more holes for more tests in the desert. "That’s a reasonable assumption,” Mr Edwards replied to a question if more tests were planned. "Some of our weapons now are more than 20 years old." He was asked if the United States might abandon the

150-megaton limitation on weapons it tested. He said it wgs not necessary to test more powerful weapons now. but that larger bombs may be tested if "our opponents " advance programmes of strengthening their cities against possible nuclear attack.

He also visited an experimental programme for burying spent fuel rods from nuclear reactors deep inside a mountain of granite. Mr Edwards said that “several companies” which he declined to name had told him that they would be forced to close their nuclear plants in four or five years if some solution to the problem of disposing of spent fuel was not found. The utilities have had to store the spent fuel in water tanks near their reactors, and storage capacity was nearing exhaustion at some plants.

He said that there were some 40,000 spent fuel assemblies in the United States. The assemblies are bundles of rods loaded with radioactive material that have been removed from reactors to be replaced with fresh fuel. The spent fuel is still radioactive and dangerous to handle.

Eleven spent fuel assemblies from a nuclear plant in Florida, representing its fuel consumption for about two months, had been buried successfullv in what the Government calls the "Climax Experiment," Mr Edwards was

told by test officials yesterday.

If the SUS 24 million experiment at the Nevada test site was successful, it could lead to the establishment of a regional system of burying spent fuel. Mr Edwards said.The unit cost of spent fuel assembly burial would decline in an operation based on known factors, according to the officials conducting Mr Edwards on his tour. “I'd like to see four or five burial sites around the country and then when people see they will work, they’ll accept it." Mr Edwards said. “Nuclear energy is the safest. cleanest source of electricity known to man.”

Mr Edwards, a former governor of South Carolina, said: “My job is about half military and half on energy," and that was the way he spent his day at the site. After watching the desert floor 16km away heave when the bomb exploded 650 metres beneath the surface, he defended the Reagan Administration's armaments plans.

"the opposition is continuing to test," he said, “this is one of those things where being No. 1 costs a little money and being No. 2 would be a cost nobody wants to think about.”

He said he regretted the necessity for more nuclear weapons, but "as long as we're in the race we want to keep the freedom Of our civilisation. We need to do what will keep it.” Asked for his thoughts on

the morality of the use of atomic bombs against the Japanese in 1945. he replied: "I have reflected on it. I was a merchant seaman at the time. We were getting ready to invade Japan. My brother was in the Philippines and probably would have been in that invasion.

"I have always been grateful we were able to end that war without the loss of so many young American lives. I wish it could have been done some other way. President Truman made the right decision.

“I hope we never have to get into another war. If we do. I want to come out of it. No. 1. not No. 2."