Tracy Press

Site 300 explosions are in the works.

Press file photo - BIG BOOM:A test explosion rocks Site 300, a bomb testing area southwest of Tracy that will soon play host to even bigger explosions than the area has seen in the past.

Outdoor explosions planned for Site 300 next to Tracy will be three times more powerful than any other local test explosion since before 1992, and a new permit will allow the energy in outdoor explosions to increase from the equivalent of 1,000 pounds of TNT every year to 8,000 pounds.

Gordon Krauter, who works at Site 300’s indoor testing center, said Thursday that he expects the test explosions to contain the equivalent of 300 pounds of TNT, although a permit granted by the San Joaquin County Air Pollution Control District allows blasts of up to 350 pounds.

A typical small car bomb is roughly equivalent to 500 pounds of TNT, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

“You couldn’t feel them in Tracy, but you could certainly hear them,” said Krauter, who said the first such detonation could happen later this month.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories spokeswoman Lynda Seaver said that although Tracy residents would be warned through the Tracy Press when explosions are planned, residents might not hear them. She said weather balloons would test to what extent sound and shockwaves would bounce off the atmosphere back to Tracy before the explosions are detonated.

Representatives from Lawrence Livermore, which runs Site 300, refused to say how many bombs or bomb components might be tested in a year.

Site 300 manager Jim Lane said the explosions have yet to be scheduled.

Lane wouldn’t name a project linked to the planned explosions, saying it is “sensitive,” but it’s understood they will be part of a relatively new program by a Lawrence Livermore engineering department.

Lane said the tests would involve no radioactive material and would be unrelated to the federal government’s Reliable Replacement Warhead program, which will redesign and rebuild the nation’s nuclear arsenal.

The only reason given by Lawrence Livermore for the eight-fold annual increase in explosives testing was “national security,” according to air district spokeswoman Kelly Morphy.

Site 300 has not previously needed an air district permit for its explosions because it has not exceeded 100 pounds of explosions per day, or 1,000 pounds of explosions per year since the air district was formed in 1992.

According to Morphy, the permit will allow the explosions to emit up to 63 pounds of particulate matter of up to 10 microns in diameter per day, 18.6 pounds of carbon monoxide per day, 5.4 pounds of hydrogen sulfide per day, 1.5 pounds of nitrogen oxides per day, 0.7 pounds of volatile organic compounds per day and 0.4 pounds of sulfur oxides per day.

Marylia Kelley, Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment executive director, said emissions from the planned explosions would help form acid rain and other types of pollution.

“This is a shocking change of plan,” Kelley said. “This is a complete turnaround from February 2006 when the (Department of Energy) announced it was going to phase out the explosive testing activities at Site 300.”

Kelley said she suspected the increase in explosives testing is related to the National Nuclear Security Administration’s plans to consolidate, dismantle and rebuild nuclear warheads by 2030. She said Tri-Valley CAREs will have an information session on that program at the Tracy Community Center at 6 p.m. Tuesday.

Lawrence Livermore, which is run and staffed by the University of California, also applied to increase the amount of toxic waste it can store at Site 300 from 3,300 gallons to 5,500 gallons, according to Department of Toxic Substances Control permit project manager Andrew Berna-Hicks.

Seaver said the waste would not be radioactive, and she said Site 300 wanted to take advantage of existing waste-storage capacity to reduce the number of trips by trucks carrying waste out of the 7,000-acre site, which is a mile from Tracy’s city limits.

Site 300 is being considered by the Department of Homeland Security to run an anti-biological terrorism laboratory that would test and store incurable fatal diseases such as the Ebola virus and mad cow disease.

Groundwater, surface water, soil and bedrock that is contaminated with uranium, tritium, volatile organic compounds, percholates and nitrates led the Environmental Protection Agency to include Site 300 in its Superfund list of the country’s most contaminated sites.

To reach reporter John Upton, call 830-4274 or e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

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