[FAIR USE FOR EDUCATION AND RESEARCH PURPOSE ONLY] March 20, 2000

Safety Probed at Pantex Nuclear Weapons Plant

By Cat Lazaroff

AMARILLO, Texas, March 20, 2000 (ENS) - The U.S. Department of Energy has embarked on an investigation into safety procedures at the Pantex Plant, Americas only nuclear weapons assembly and disassembly plant. The probe comes on the heels of a 30 page report by a DOE nuclear safety engineer, who suggests that safety problems at the plant are so serious that the agency should consider shutting it down.

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[Zone 4, the area of the Pantex Plant where nuclear weapons are stored, is protected from intruders by rows of razor wire (All photos courtesy Pantex) -----------------

Department of Energy (DOE) engineer Frank Rowsome listed a number of safety issues at the Pantex plant, operated by the Mason and Hanger Corporation under a federal contract.

Rowsome details cases where nuclear weapons were destroyed by mistake, errors which he says could cause an accidental explosion of a nuclear weapon. The potential accident would not lead to a nuclear detonation, Rowsome said, but could "spread some small but embarrassing quantities of plutonium into the environment."

In another instance, workers using one weapon as a guide to dismantle a second weapon discovered, "to the surprise of the engineers," that the two weapons were not the same model.

Rowsome said regional DOE officials, and managers from Mason and Hangar, censored complaints by their own engineers regarding the dismantling of W-76 warheads. The engineers concerns were removed from a report on the safety of the dismantling process, he said.

Some nuclear weapons assembly and disassembly at Pantex occurs in these buildings, called cells, which are covered by mounds of gravel to help absorb radiation in the event of an accident "Deleting adverse findings from such reports has, in my judgment, the effect of covering up safety problems," Rowsome wrote. Rowsome also criticizes the DOEs safety practices in general, saying the agency encourages its officials to avoid actions that might cause problems for the nuclear weapons program.

A 12 person team from the DOEs Office of Environment, Safety and Health (OESH) will conduct an independent evaluation of safety documentation at the Pantex Plant. The review, which the DOE says was planned before Rowsomes report, is scheduled to begin March 27.

The DOE says the evaluation is also unrelated to the discovery March 1 of trichloroethylene (TCE) in a monitoring well on the Pantex site. The well is used to monitor groundwater from the Ogalalla Aquifer, a major water source for the Texas Panhandle and several western states.

These bays at Pantex, also used for assembly and disassembly, are designed to resist the effects of an explosive accident "Protecting the safety and health of workers, the public and the environment is an integral part of the Department of Energy's mission, including the responsibilities carried out by the National Nuclear Security Administration," said Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, announcing the investigation. "I am committed to continuing the department's emphasis on independent safety reviews while transitioning our nation's defense activities to a new organizational structure."

The evaluation is the first into safety documentation at a National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) facility. The NNSA is a semi-autonomous agency, created by Congress in response to heightened concerns over the security of the nations nuclear weapons program, which began operations on March 1.

The Pantex review is a follow up to a 1996 evaluation of safety management at Pantex. Safety documentation is used to identify all credible risks and hazards arising from DOE activities, as well as the controls necessary to mitigate these risks.

Bunkers at Pantex for plutonium removed from nuclear weapons The OESH team will examine the safety documentation for selected Pantex facilities and operations to determine if it is current and technically accurate. They will also evaluate the processes the DOE and Mason and Hanger use to develop, review, approve and maintain safety documents. The team will report their findings to Secretary Richardson.

Concerns about the quality of safety documentation at Pantex have been identified by a number of sources in recent years. The evaluation will assess progress that has been made toward resolving previous concerns and highlight areas that may require further action.

Mason and Hanger Corp. was cited for problems with safety documentation in the 1996 review by the OESH and by the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board in a 1998 recommendation and several technical documents.

) Environment News Service (ENS) 2000. All Rights Reserved.

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-- (Dee360Degree@aol.com), March 20, 2000