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.
WATCHDOG: NUKE LAB CAN'T DEFEND ITSELF
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