Document title:  Bechtel Nevada gets $1.5 billion test site deal
Document type:  Newspaper article  
Publication:  Las Vegas Review-Journal
Date:  Oct. 27, 1995
Page:  1A, 4A
Author: Keith Rogers and Warren Bates
Photo-caption: Nevada Test Site workers arriving Thursday night by 
bus in Las Vegas were mostly optimistic about the news that Bechtel 
Nevada Corp. has won the contract to operate the facility for the next 
five years. EG&G Inc. has held the contract for the last 44 years.


Bechtel Nevada gets $1.5 billion test site deal

*A new round of high-explosive tests, which will replace nuclear blasts, 
will be announced today by the Energy secretary.

By Keith Roger 
and Warten Bates 
Review-Journal           
  
Bechtel Nevada Corp. won the Department of Energy's $1.5 billion contract 
to manage the Nevada Test Site for the next five years, promising to launch 
a new era of testing nuclear weapons materials, government and company 
officials said Thursday.   

"With the end of the Cold War, the mission of the test site is changing.  The 
department looks forward to Bechtel Nevada Corp. becoming a member of 
the Nevada operations team of the future," said Terry Vaeth, manager of 
the department's Las Vegas office.   

Vaeth said the new round of tests, expected to be announced today by 
Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary, would involve high-explosives detonations 
of bomb-grade plutonium and uranium that would not reach the critical or 
nuclear chain reaction state.   

"I have a feeling the  secretary will allow us to do subcritical experiments. 
They are experiments that would combine high explosives with plutonium 
or highly enriched uranium to look at the physics," Vaeth said.   

The so-called equation of state experiments would enable scientists to 
maintain the nation's stockpile through computer simulations without 
conducting below-ground nuclear tests, he said.   

Vaeth said he envisions "a very strong partnership between the contractor 
and our national laboratories" in California and New Mexico.   

Bechtel Nevada spokesman Michael Kidder said O'Leary notified the 
company about the. performance based contract award Thursday.   

"We're delighted and it's truly, truly a team effort when you look at the 
resources of Bechtel National, Lockheed Martin Corp. and Johnson Controls 
World Services," the companies that merged to seek the test site contract.    

O'Leary's decision to choose Bechtel Nevada Corp. over two other high 
technology competitors --  NevTech Services Ltd. and Raytheon Science 
Inc. -- will change the course of the test site's 44-year history.  

Since 1951, when the Rhode Island-sized test site, 65 miles northwest of 
Las Vegas, became the nation's continental nuclear weapons proving  
grounds, EG&G Inc. and its subsidiaries have served as the government's 
primary contractor.   

But last year, EG&G Energy Measurements Inc. and its sister company, 
Reynolds Electrical & Engineering Co., announced they would not seek to 
renew the $450 million in annual contracts with the Department of Energy. 

EG&G Energy Measurements General Manager Peter Zavattaro and REECo 
General Manager Dale Fraser said they anticipate a smooth transition 
before Bechtel Nevada's contract takes effect Jan. 1.   

"REECo is leaving Bechtel Nevada with what we believe to be the finest 
work force of its kind," Fraser said.  

With the nuclear testing moratorium that began in 1992, the department's 
Nevada Operations Office has seen its funding levels steadily decrease from 
about $1 billion in 1990 to $680 million this year. The Nevada office has 
6,500 employees, mostly employed by contractors, but by the end of this 
year agency offficials project the number of layoffs since the moratorium 
began will total 1,800, including 800 this year.   

Test site workers arriving from their jobs by bus on the outskirts of Las 
Vegas offered cautious but favorable reactions to Thursday's news about 
Bechtel Nevada. They were told of the new contractor through electronic 
mail at 2:15 p.m. 

"I think it's a good move. We're ready for a change," said a test site line 
manager who did not want to give his name. REECo was still operating 
under the past pretense there was a vast amount of money, and there's 
not."   

The worker predicted there might be some job losses at the management 
level, echoing another employee's comment that Bechtel was brought in as 
a cost cutting move 80 some people "could be a little on edge" as far as 
future employment.   

"The next 30 days will be critical to what the company intends to do," said 
Leo Flores, an electrical engineer who doesn't expect any change in his job 
status.   

"I think it's all right. Someone had to get the contract," said Max 
Iverson, a test site manager. He said he believes most employees will be 
retained because ~I don't think they (Bechtel) could come in with a big 
enough crew. I don't know where they'd get enough people."   

Test site worker Craig Barnes said he was excited about the contract 
award. He said he had good experiences with Bechtel as a contractor when 
he worked at the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant in California.   

Troy Wade, chairman of a test site contractors group, the Nevada Alliance 
for Defense Energy and Business, said he is impressed with Bechtel's 
demonstrated reputation as a budget manager."   

I'm told their goals and the goals for the alliance are very harmonious," 
Wade said in a telephone interview.   

Wade said he also is pleased that O'Leary has approved zero-yield, special 
nuclear materials experiments for the test site, where tests that produce 
nuclear yields have been on hold since the last below-ground detonation 
on Sept. 23, 1992. 

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