POGO Report Calls for No More Delays Removing Plutonium from Neighborhood

After several months of investigation, POGO has determined that weapons-grade plutonium and highly enriched uranium, DOE's most dangerous and expensive-to-guard special nuclear material (SNM), can be safely removed from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (Livermore Lab), three years sooner than the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) timetable of 2012.

Why did we focus a report on Livermore Lab? It is the only remaining nuclear facility with weapons-grade material located in a residential community--seven million people live within a 50-mile radius of the Lab, located in the greater metropolis of San Francisco, CA.

As soon as the report was released, NNSA said it could not make the moves before 2012. (Suspecting this response, POGO made sure to check that there is empty and secure space at another NNSA site to store Livermore Lab's material, as well as secure and available Department of Energy 18-wheel trucks to move the material.)

Now is the time for Congress to get details from NNSA about why they can't move the material by early 2009, saving taxpayers $160 million and eliminating a huge homeland security vulnerability--if terrorists gained access to this material, they could detonate them, devastating the San Francisco Bay Area and inland regions. (POGO learned NNSA gave Livermore Lab a waiver so that it does not have to meet the current security requirements devised by the intelligence community.) It's actually a win-win: if NNSA removes the material sooner, it can direct the security funds to bolster the security at its other sites.

In responding to our investigation, NNSA director Thomas D'Agostino confirmed another of our concerns. Livermore Lab is engaged in pursuing new research with plutonium, which may delay de-inventorying efforts. The Contra Costa Times reports that NNSA Director Thomas D'Agostino said there is "ongoing research on plutonium at the lab." Congressional staff with oversight of DOE/NNSA need to find out if this research has a national security mission. If so, when is it scheduled to end? And, can't it happen at the remote, more secure NNSA facility at the Nevada Test Site that would only be a one-hour flight for Livermore scientists?

It's not only congressional staff who have the responsibility to get this information; so does the public, which can use NNSA's upcoming public hearings to find out why an agency that just removed weapons-grade materials from the Sandia National Laboratories seven months ahead of schedule can't apply the same resources to Livermore Lab.

It's also important to note that media coverage of our report has not mentioned POGO's recommendation that NNSA make the security officers who protect Livermore Lab, and other NNSA nuclear weapons sites, federal employees. Right now, they are private security guards. That's right: those who guard the materials to make nuclear weapons are not sworn law enforcement officers, thus lacking the benefits, training and supplies that would help them better do their job.

-- Ingrid Drake

UPDATE: Click here to watch a video of POGO's Peter Stockton and Ingrid Drake discussing their investigation into Livermore Lab.

Comments

[Brian]

Granted they are in a residential are. Biut remember everything moved in around the job site. I work at a similiar site and we have a pc head of security. They got rid of our weapons and opened up the roads so it dosen't inconvenience the employees. So anyone can drive up to and over the site and no one is suppossed to bother them. Which do you want open or some measure to stop someone from getting in. ps the gattlins are usually from c wis systems fro air defense.

[Ralph Hutchison]

I'm guessing what the article meant to say was that Los Alamos is the only facility with weapons-grade PLUTONIUM in a residential neighborhood. Because of their excellent work on Oak Ridge in the past, POGO knows the Y12 plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee has hundreds of tons of weapons-grade highly enriched uranium and is situated less than two miles from the residential community of Scarboro; virtually the entire city of Oak Ridge is within five miles of the plant, and Knoxville is only 18 miles away.

[William Fargo]

I find this interesting in that a federal register entry some time ago (I was surprised it was put out for public consumption considering what I thought were some national security concerns) stated that there was a planned consolidation of weapons grade plutonium at the Savannah River facility where it could be more adequately safeguarded. The theory being, I think, that a number of disparate locations for the plutonium was a higher security risk than an all in one facility policy. What is the training level and experience of these private guards I wonder? Finally, I can't understand the citizens of SF putting up with this situation.