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Weapons Complex Pantex workforce would fall By Greg Rohloff A hearing on a proposal for a smaller nuclear weapons complex, which would reduce employment at Pantex over the next 10 years by up to 10 percent, will be held in Amarillo on Feb. 28. Like a previous hearing on the planned changes in the weapons complex, the meeting will be conducted in two parts at the Globe-News Center for the Performing Arts in the education room, 500 S. Buchanan. The first part will run from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., and the second part will run from 6 to 10 p.m. The hearing is part of 19 hearings in communities affected by the proposed changes, starting on Feb. 21 in North Augusta, S.C. and continuing through March 25 in Washington, D.C. When the DOE started this process in 2006, the apparent goal was to renew plutonium pit production in a facility that would be the heart of a new factory for weapons assembly, with the chief product eventually becoming the so-called reliable replacement warhead. But Congress last year rejected additional funding to move the new warhead a step closer to production, and DOE separately moved to another option, which would shrink the complex while reducing the number of warheads and updating the arsenal. This option, though, does not completely address issues raised in a document that outlines environmental cleanup costs over the next 10 years. The document, which had been secret, was recently released after the organizations Nuclear Watch of New Mexico and the Peace Farm won the right in a New Mexico courtroom to see a portion of the document. The document outlines up to $400 million in cleanup costs, part of which is for demolition and decontamination of unneeded facilities at a cost of $36 million. The bulk of the environmental costs, though, comes under the heading of long-term stewardship, defined in the document as surveillance, maintenance, monitoring and records management by the National Nuclear Security Administration, with costs over the decade totaling $81.4 million, plus another $119.8 million after 2025. The released document, according to Nuclear Watch of New Mexico, does not describe the cleanup steps that would be taken. Meantime, the DOE proposes that Pantex become a physically smaller operation, dropping the number of Pantex employees by about 10 percent, largely through attrition during the next decade. It would gain a new underground storage facility for the estimated 10,000 to 15,000 pits that are now in underground storage, a new high-explosives machining operation and a new weapons surveillance facility. Systemwide, the complex workforce would decline by up to 30 percent. Peace Farm director Mavis Belisle said the biggest mystery about the cleanup assessment was the secrecy claims that DOE had clung to since first being asked for the document three years ago. Typically, details about weapons construction, not environmental cleanup costs, are blacked out of an information request, she said. These cost estimates have not been included in recent budget requests, Belisle said, expressing doubt that future budgets would include these cleanup costs. Belisle said she was leaning toward raising the environmental questions with DOE through written comments rather than a presentation on Feb. 28. To speak at the Feb. 28 meeting, DOE asks participants to register prior to the start of the meeting. Speakers will be given about three to five minutes. Each four-hour session will begin with a discussion by NNSA officials, followed by questions and answers and public comments on the proposal. Additionally, the NNSA will accept written comments through April 10. Copies of the draft proposal are available at the downtown Central Branch Library and the North Branch Library, 1504 N.E. 24th Ave. E-mail
comments about this story Posted: February 21, 2008
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