
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 29, 1990                   TAG: 9003290737
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A/2   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

SOVIETS TOUR WEAPONS PLANT

In a sign of the Cold War's passing, the Bush administration is opening the doors today of the long-secret Savannah River nuclear weapons plant to Soviet officials.

The Soviet delegation is visiting the South Carolina installation and other U.S. defense nuclear facilities this week as part of a fact-finding mission designed to exchange information on ways of handling and disposing of radioactive wastes.

For most of its nearly four decades of operation, the Savannah River plant has been one of the most secretive sites in the nation. It contains three reactors that produce tritium, a gas needed in the production of nuclear warheads. The reactors have been shut down for two years for safety reasons but are being repaired.

Also on the site are a weapons laboratory, a Navy nuclear fuel processing plant, facilities for disassembling retired nuclear warheads and related operations.

The Soviet delegation, led by Boris Nikipelov, first deputy minister of atomic energy and industry, was to be briefed by U.S. officials at Savannah River on nuclear waste management and disposal programs and other environmental activities.

Bob Griffin, an Energy Department spokesman, said the Soviets would not tour the nuclear reactors at Savannah River, which are in a restricted area that can be entered only by U.S. personnel with the highest security clearances.

Griffin said it was the first time Soviet government officials had visited Savannah River, although Soviets have toured other parts of the nuclear weapons complex, which includes 17 production facilities and research laboratories in 12 states.

The Savannah River visit is part of a four-stop tour for the Soviets, who arrived in Washington on Monday at the invitation of Energy Secretary James Watkins.

The Soviets visited the Oak Ridge nuclear weapons complex in Tennessee on Wednesday and are scheduled to travel Friday to Carlsbad, N.M., where the Energy Department is building an underground facility to permanently store nuclear wastes.

A U.S. government delegation plans a reciprocal visit to the Soviet Union in May or June, Griffin said.

by CNB