Friday, February 11, 2000
Nuclear parts stored at plant
The Washington Post
More than 1,600 tons of nuclear weapons parts reportedly lie scattered around the Energy Department's Paducah, Ky., uranium plant, a safety manager informed regulators Thursday in a new disclosure of potential hazards unknown to workers or civilian plant supervisors.
Some of the bomb parts are stored in above-ground shelters and could pose a risk of exposure or even an accidental nuclear reaction at the plant, if the components are contaminated with radioactive substances such as enriched uranium and plutonium, the official reported in a signed statement to the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The U.S. Enrichment Corp., the government-chartered private company that now runs the plant, acknowledged Thursday that its senior officials recently discussed the issue with the Department of Energy.
“USEC has been assured that DOE is not aware of any conditions that create a radiological hazard to USEC personnel at the site beyond those already known and controlled,” company spokeswoman Elizabeth Stuckle said.
Energy Department officials involved with the country's classified nuclear weapons program apparently were aware of the shipment of bomb components to Paducah over many years, but the department did not until recently inform the plant's civilian overseers and safety officials who were in charge of evaluating threats to workers.
The statement by Raymond Carroll, a senior manager of health and safety programs at the plant since 1992, quotes a conversation with another senior civilian plant official who reportedly told Mr. Carroll he was worried about the bomb parts after hearing of their existence from a DOE official.
Mr. Carroll also said he was told that DOE officials recently began hauling away documents related to weapons dismantling.
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