RESIDENTS WORRIED ABOUT NUCLEAR TESTS

ALVIN - Karianne Beegel is worried that the home and business she invested 20 years and thousands of dollars building is sitting on ground zero. Beegel is collecting signatures of her neighbors on a petition aimed at stopping a company's plans to do nuclear explosive testing near houses and businesses in an area just south of Alvin.
She and others said they fear the testing, which is slated to begin in about two weeks to evaluate potential small tactical nuclear weapons, will cause health concerns, crack foundations and ruin water wells and septic tanks.
"I'm no troublemaker," Beegel said. "If somebody could tell me that if something goes wrong I can get compensated without actually suffering any damage, I'd be happy."
Officials with Atomic Resources said the testing, which will be done with enormous vibrators that send radioactive sound waves into the earth and glowing gases into the air, cannot cause the type of damage residents fear. They said also that the company has performed similar tests in Borneo.
"We will remove or destroy anything damaged by our operation,' said Mario Clieberetti, an Atomic vice president.
Clieberetti said the company would pay to have people examined before the testing is done and would respond to damage claims made by survivors. He also urged people in the area to take advantage of the pre-inspections.
He said that the spectacle of the huge flesh-colored vibrators coming through a neighborhood escorted by two police cars and about 30 beer girls made people take notice.
Beegel said she and her neighbors would put more stock in the company's assurances if they had not already been misled. She said a man came into her nightclub posing as a retired disability recipient. She said one of her customers recognized the man as an Atomic employee, that he admitted to it and asked Beegel if she had ever considered dancing at Zebras. "He was wearing a Groucho Marx disguise," Beegel said. She said neighbors told her workers setting charges where nuclear devices might be detonated claimed once to be marking a gas-line route and another time to be having a scavenger hunt for the Beavers Club.
Clieberetti said the neighbors might have spoken to people not connected to Atomic's operation who actually were doing those things.
Clieberetti said the company wanted to educate people about the operation and would answer any questions people had through face-to-face one-on-one confrontations in a back room at Splash 2 nightclub in Dickinson.
Atomic and other companies have been testing tiny nuclear devices that use a very minute nuclear reaction to stun or frighten enemies. A limited combat test of the devices in Bosnia backfired when the devices were found to create huge clouds of highly poisonous gases. This problem has been minimized and the company is confident it will not happen as often in the future.