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rne prooiem local otuciais seemed to be most concernedDismantlingOf WarheadProbableAMARILLO. Texas lt;AP — A shroud of secrecy surrounds the status of a nuclear warhead damaged ui an Arkansas explosion and brought to Texa* But officials insist the weapon no longer is dangerous K (' Hardin, acting director of public affairs for the Department of Energy in Albuquerque, N M . said the warhead was designed at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory and that its engineering was done by Sandia laboratories — both in New Mexico ‘*We had three people from Los Alamos and two from Sandia that went down to Dam ascus (Ark.), Hardin said Wednesday “They did everything needing to be done to make sure there was no danger.He estimated it would be three or four weeks before personnel from the two labs arrive to work on the warhead stured at an assembly plant near this Panhandle city. The Pantex plant is the nation s only assembly and disassembly plant foi nuclear weapons.'Hie warhead is believed to be in the nine-megaton range, which would make it one of the largest in the country's nuclear arsenalThe bomb was thrown from a Titan 11 intercontinental ballistic missile when an underground silo exploded in Damascus last weekThe warhead was flown to Amarillo from Little Rock by a special Air Force jet transport Tuesday and trucked under heavy security to the Pantex plant about live miles outside of Amarillo.Government officials would not say Wednesday what happens next to a damaged nuclear warhead Although Department of Energy officials, who oversee the plant, won't release information, normal procedure would be to disassemble the warhead, one source said.The usable components — which could include radioactive plutonium, gold, silver and platinum — would be recycled and shipped to other plants which make parts for nuclear weapon*.Unsalvagable or radioactive parts would be buried in a Pantex dump along with other weapons waste, the source said. Pantex is operated by the nvate firm of Mason k Hanger ilas Mason Co , Inc , a government contractor since the lHOOsA June 1976 government environmental assessment report on Pantex said part of the plant housed plutoniuiTi-239 residue from military weapons dam aged in a two B-52 bomber accidents, one on Palomares, Spain, and the other in Thule,f ;r*»#nl«nri v^nrs nan/\s (were tr format! Lloyd inunder Air Con the ana“insti.n Lea vi no longisi-
Newspaper Details
Fayetteville Northwest Arkansas Times
Fayetteville, Arkansas, US
Thu, Sep 25, 1980
Page 3
Full Page
Clipped by
Arkansas S.
AR, USA 14 Feb 2020
Other Publications Near Fayetteville, Arkansas
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Fayetteville Northwest Arkansas Times
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