Nine wells will be drilled in the Pahute Mesa region of the Nevada Test Site at the suggestion of the NTS Community Advisory Board, to reconfirm computer models that suggest contamination from nuclear testing may migrate off the test site.

The U.S. Department of Energy and National Nuclear Security Administration announced the cost of $5 million to $7 million to drill each well would come in part from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, commonly known as the economic stimulus package.

The drilling is the latest effort in a long-term program to define the location and extent of groundwater contamination from nuclear testing between 1951 and 1992. In a prepared statement, the NNSA states sampling activities have identified contamination near historic nuclear test sites.

"The expectation predicted by the model is the first well drilled, which is on the NTS, will show detectable levels of tritium, and the appropriate safeguards are planned," said Bill Wilborn, the NNSA federal sub-project director responsible for the drilling.

An October 1997 report predicted migration of contaminants off the Nevada Test Site in the western Pahute Mesa region within 50 years of the first nuclear detonation in 1966. A February 2009 report, based on computer modeling, further supported the predicted movement of contamination beyond the Nevada Test Site boundary.

The wells will help refine computer modeling of the flow of contamination.

Genne Nelson, a former Nevada Test Site CAB member and now a liaison, applauded the move.

"The first well they're drilling is essentially one of the wells that the community advisory board recommended to them," Nelson said.

When models suggested contamination would leave the boundaries of the Nevada Test Site, Nelson said, "That was the impetus to do this additional drilling. Models are only as good as the data you put into it."

The DOE took information on the modeling, gave it to a technical working group including geologists, engineers and physicists as well as CAB members, to determine the best places to drill, she said.

"It's not just a PR ploy. A bunch of different people came together and said this is an area important for information," Nelson said. "We were advocating, get more data now. You don't have enough."

Nelson said not enough data is available to predict how contamination will move under the test site.

"We believe the town of Beatty is the closest community to underground contamination and therefore has the highest risk of being impacted," Nelson said. "There were more tests in Yucca Flat but there were larger tests in Pahute Mesa."

In 2006 the CAB recommended locations for three wells to intercept possible contamination, determine the depth to groundwater, provide a clear understanding of groundwater chemistry, identify rock units and provide results.

"We believe there is a shortage of monitoring wells down gradient of this most important area of contamination beneath Area 20. After several years of study there have been no maps produced to accurately depict the groundwater flow paths from that area," Charles Phillips, the former chairman of the CAB, said.

Once the boundary of the contamination has been characterized, the state and the DOE will establish a compliance boundary and monitoring wells will be placed to ensure contamination doesn't cross that boundary. The deadline to complete that process is in 2027.