Group claims security failed during Y-12 site drill

Washington (Nuclear News Flashes)--15Jan2004

Security guards could not protect high-enriched uranium (HEU) stockpiles from terrorist attack during a test at DOE's Y-12 facility in Oak Ridge, Tenn. in Dec. 2003, according to the Project On Government Oversight (POGO). The watchdog group said "government sources" told it about the security force's failure and quoted unnamed witnesses as describing the test results as "pretty ugly." Y-12 makes the HEU components of U.S. nuclear weapons. POGO said the Y-12 facility is "of particular concern" because it houses the most materials in the nuclear complex that could be used to create a device to disperse radioactive material or an actual nuclear detonation on site. A spokesman at the Oak Ridge site declined to comment on the POGO report.