From 1956 until it closed in 1991, Pease Air Force Base in Newington was home to two wings of long-range bombers.
Some of the aircraft were equipped with nuclear weapons. The weapons were stored in bunkers in what is now the Great Bay National Wildlife Refuge.
Last week, the Air Force announced that the weapons storage area may contain radioactive waste.
NHPR correspondent Brian McWilliams filed this report.
Fifteen concrete bunkers stored nuclear weapons at Pease Air Force Base for several decades.
Before Pease was closed in 1991, the bunkers were emptied of weapons.
Afterwards, the Air Force's Occupational and Environmental Health Lab TESTED THE 70 ACRE WEAPONS STORAGE AREA.
THE TESTS showed no signs of elevated radiation levels.
That should have been the end of Pease's nuclear history.
But now the Air Force says it has some new concerns about Pease and dozens of other decommissioned bases around the country.
An internal review has produced a previously classified 1972 study of the Air Force's methods for storing radioactive wastes.
"We put them in plastic inside steel barrels, and the problem with that is that barrels will usually rust out. And that's the problem with these early burial sites."
Joseph Stencel is former chief of the Radiation Measurements Division of the Air Force's Radiological Health Laboratory.
He co-authored the 1972 study of the Air Force's methods for burying radioactive waste at 46 sites.
Today, one of those burial pits may lie amid the abandoned bunkers in what is now the Great Bay National Wildlife Refuge in Newington.
Sited on 1,000 acres formerly used by Pease, the Refuge is home to a variety of birds and other wildlife. Its trails are popular with visitors year around.
Refuge manager Jim Reynolds says he got a call from the Air Force last week. They told him they planned to visit the site this summer.
THEY WANT to locate and remove any buried radioactive material in the former weapons storage area.
The area is secured with fences topped with razor wire.
Although the bunkers lie just a couple hundred yards from Great Bay, Reynolds says he's confident there's no danger to wildlife or humans.
"I feel comfortable that it's still safe and there's no leaking of radioactive material, if indeed this burial pit exists. That's a big if. If it's there, there's no reason to think there's any danger to humans or animals, because it's buried in the ground."
THE 1972 report contains no details on RADIOACTIVE WASTE storage at Pease.
At the time, he says, no one at the base knew whether such a burial pit existed.
Even if it does, Air Force spokesman Carl Sahre says the pit likely contains only contaminated gloves and other clothing, and not actual warheads or contaminated liquids.
He says any radiation that was on the items would have been very low level.
"I understand the concern. The minute you hear `radioactive' everybody's heart leaps a little bit. We're confident that if there's a problem, it's not a major problem, and it's something we can get rid of pretty easily."
Stencel agrees. Currently a professor of environmental engineering at Rutgers University, he says the risk posed by the burial sites is small.
"I would expect that most of the stuff would have short half-lives and most of it would be decayed away. They can dig down into the site, but they're probably not going to find anything any more."
Still, the Refuge's Jim Reynolds and others say they are a little puzzled over why the Air Force is suddenly raising the nuclear issue now.
According to AIR FORCE SPOKESMAN Sahre, when Pease was decommissioned, information about the site's nuclear programs was highly classified.
"Since that time, a lot of it has been declassified, and upon the Air Force's review, we found it ourselves, and we started looking at some of these areas. And that's how we came to the conclusion that we might have a problem."
Sahre says it's fortunate that the potential burial pit is located in a fenced-off, remote part of the former Pease base.
Elsewhere on former base property are numerous business offices, as well as hotels and restaurants.
A decommissioned air base in California has a burial pit that's on land currently used as a prison.
In Texas, a former base that's on the list is adjacent to a housing development.
REFUGE MANAGER Reynolds says he's been assured that testing will take place by fall.
AND if any radioactive material is discovered, it will be removed promptly.
In the meantime, Reynolds says the Air Force has instructed the Refuge not to disturb the soils in the former weapons storage area.
Reynolds says he has a good idea of where the burial pit might exactly be located.
But he declined to reveal the location.
For NHPR News, I'm Brian McWilliams.
