WATCHDOG: NUKE LAB CAN’T DEFEND ITSELF

Project on Government Oversight, the watch­dog group so instru­men­tal in expos­ing the Los Alamos scan­dals, is now accus­ing the Y-​​12 nuclear weapons com­plex in Oak Ridge, TN of slip­shod secu­rity.
According to POGO, a ter­ror drill last month turned “pretty ugly” when Y-12’s “secu­rity forces could not ade­quately pro­tect the enor­mous stock­piles of highly enriched ura­nium (HEU) from a ter­ror­ist attack.” The exer­cise was part of a larger Department of Energy (DOE) review of the facility’s defenses.
DOE spokesman Joe Davis, tells the Knoxville News-​​Sentinel that “any­thing that POGO says is sec­ond– and third-​​hand.“
But other DOE offi­cials con­firm that secu­rity at Y-​​12 had been shaken up, in the wake of the secu­rity review.
Congressional crit­ics, like Rep., Christopher Shays (R-​​CT), have long warned that Y-​​12 is a major risk.
POGO senior inves­ti­ga­tor Peter Stockton says the main prob­lem is an infil­tra­tor can be over a Y-​​12 fence, and into an enriched ura­nium hold­ing area, in about 45 sec­onds.
“That’s not a lot of time to put a gun on some­body,” he says.

January 16th, 2004 | Los Alamos and Labs | Comments Off Both comments and pings are currently closed.