Washington, D.C. -- The discovery of groundwater contaminated with radioactivity near the Nevada Test Site this week points to the need for increased monitoring and oversight activities related to Nevada's nuclear legacy, Senator Harry Reid said today.

"This discovery may come as one more surprise to those scientists who have maintained that nuclear contamination at the Test Site poses no threat to Nevadans," Reid said. "We have to wait until all the tests are complete, but for now it seems like these surprises just keep popping up over and over again. That is why I have placed so much emphasis on accelerating and expanding the surveillance and monitoring programs now in place at the Nevada Test Site."

Officials from Nye County, Nevada discovered the tainted groundwater in a sample taken from a test well in the Armagosa Valley which is used to monitor contamination. While no final results from tests on the sample have been released, initial reports are that the level of radioactivity detected was 25 times higher than allowed under the Safe Drinking Water Act.

"As Nevadans, we must all live with the nuclear legacy left behind from experiments conducted at the Nevada Test Site," Reid said. "This latest incident may point to a pattern that shows our groundwater is threatened by radioactive contamination from nuclear testing, if it can be shown that these toxic substances are moving off the Test Site."

Reid said the same questions also applies to the proposed high level nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain.

"There are simply too many unanswered questions about the geology of the Test Site and the migration of radioactivity through ground water to say that Yucca Mountain is safe," Reid said. "Protecting the public safety and the environment is something that scientists working on this project are still learning how to do, not something they already know how to do. But when we are talking about high level nuclear waste there is no room for on the job training."

As the Ranking Member, or senior democrat, on the Senate Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee, Reid has played a key role in securing millions of dollars in funding for monitoring radiation levels and groundwater at the Nevada Test Site for County and State oversight of work on Yucca Mountain.