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Pantex could reach storage capacity for plutonium weapons cores and retired nuclear warheads awaiting dismantlement by as early as 2014, two government reports reveal. A federal official said the National Nuclear Security Administration may have to re-evaluate Pantex storage issues if President Obama orders further arms cuts, but the plant has no plan to exceed plutonium storage limits outlined in a 1997 environmental impact statement. The Pantex Site Office instead has asked contractor B&W Pantex to develop a backup plan in case funding isn't available before 2013 to build a massive new underground warehouse for special nuclear materials, according to a report this month from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, a watchdog agency that monitors safety issues at Pantex and other sites.

B61 nuclear bomb refurb done at site The Pantex Plant's work force should remain busy in the coming years as the facility dismantles larger numbers of nuclear weapons and continues refurbishing older warheads, a top National Nuclear Security Administration official said Friday. Pantex, located about 17 miles northeast of Amarillo, assembles and dismantles all U.S. nuclear weapons. NNSA Deputy Administrator Robert Smolen visited Pantex Friday to tout the department's completion of a program to refurbish the B61 strategic nuclear bomb.

Amarillo's Pantex plant is no longer asking workers to voluntarily leave their jobs. In August, Pantex officials asked employees to voluntarily leave under a separation program or the company would have to start lay offs because it was facing a $54-million budget shortfall. However, ProNews7 confirmed with Pantex that they are no longer asking employees to leave. Because, the facility is currently funded under the continuing resolution passed by congress, the plants separation program has been put on hold until March 2009.

"A petition was drawn up four years ago by some past employees of Pantex and other chemical weapons plants. The petition asks for acknowledgement that deadly levels of radiation were present at Pantex for over 40 years. Sarah Ray listened to her phone intently this morning to a conference call between experts on past radiation levels, at the Amarillo Pantex plant. "The site profile is fine as far as today's conditions but there is no information that represents past practices," says former employee Sarah Ray. She and other former chemical weapons plant workers developed an argument for why fast compensation is necessary for those who suffer from illness related to their time in the plant."

Many former atomic energy workers in southeast Iowa practically have to beg for compensation under the federal program specifically designed for them. Advertisement They go months without a response from the Department of Labor that oversees the program, and yet are expected to get their replies sent back in record time. Some letters simply go unanswered by the district offices. Then, they often wait years before finally being denied redress for protecting the country during the Cold War. And the former workers in Amarillo, Texas, at the Pantex site would love to have it that easy. "Why can't cumulative information be used to benefit other workers," said Sarah Ray, who is one of three people applying for a special exposure cohort for Pantex. "I don't get the feeling that they are truly creating a usable database. I think they're missing the boat."

Many former atomic energy workers in southeast Iowa practically have to beg for compensation under the federal program specifically designed for them. Advertisement They go months without a response from the Department of Labor that oversees the program, and yet are expected to get their replies sent back in record time. Some letters simply go unanswered by the district offices. Then, they often wait years before finally being denied redress for protecting the country during the Cold War. And the former workers in Amarillo, Texas, at the Pantex site would love to have it that easy. "Why can't cumulative information be used to benefit other workers," said Sarah Ray, who is one of three people applying for a special exposure cohort for Pantex. "I don't get the feeling that they are truly creating a usable database. I think they're missing the boat."

Agency to build three new facilities here for storage, modernization The National Nuclear Security Administration approved a long-term plan Tuesday that keeps nuclear weapons assembly work at the Pantex Plant and cements its role in high-explosives manufacturing. Pantex, located 17 miles northeast of Amarillo, assembles and dismantles nuclear weapons, modernizes older warheads and stores tons of plutonium weapons cores, the nuclear hearts of modern atomic bombs and long-range missiles. The plan, unveiled Tuesday by NNSA Administrator Tom D'Agostino, includes three new Pantex facilities: an underground plutonium-storage complex, new high-explosives pressing operations and a $172 million weapons-surveillance facility where warheads and bombs can be monitored for signs of aging

Former Pantex employees who developed cancer can state their case to a Federal Health Board. The Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health is in Amarillo Tuesday and Wednesday to discuss topics related to energy employees occupational illness. Although not officlally discussing Pantex, the Board will hear from the public from 7pm to 8pm Tuesday and 4pm to 5pm Wednesday at the Holiday Inn, 1911 E. I-40. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health has previously recommended that there is sufficient evidence at Pantex for a "dose reconstruction". It's a method to estimate how much radiation an energy employee was exposed to while working there.

A top Pantex official told a key House subcommittee Thursday that the plant is ready to accept different types of nuclear weapons work under a proposed plan to modernize the nation's nuclear weapons complex. Greg Meyer, B&W Pantex president and general manager, testified Thursday before a congressional subcommittee reviewing government plans to upgrade weapons plants and laboratories.

An Amarillo man has been found guilty on 29 charges of defrauding the federal government's Pantex Nuclear Facility by billing for hours he and his employees didn't work. Federal prosecutors said Thursday that 57-year-old Roy David Williams was convicted of wire fraud, theft of public money, 16 counts of fraudulent claims and 11 other counts. Williams is alleged to have defrauded Pantex of more than $169,000 in public money. Authorities say Williams owned WAATTS Inc. in Amarillo and used bogus addresses in Tennessee as part of his scheme.

A federal grand jury in Amarillo indicted a contractor Tuesday on charges alleging he defrauded the federal government out of nearly $170,000 by submitting falsified timecards and expense claims for contract work at the Pantex Plant. The grand jury indicted Roy David Williams, 57, on 29 separate counts, including wire fraud and false claims. The wire fraud count carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Federal prosecutors allege Williams engaged in unauthorized bid preparations and other management activities for his technical services company, WAATTS Inc., while he was at Pantex and then billed the plant for those unauthorized hours.

"Two goose hunters inadvertently caused a security lock down in Texas at the nation's only nuclear weapons assembly and disassembly plant. Carson County Sheriff Tam Terry said plant employees on their way to work Friday saw two people in green camouflage carrying rifles about two miles south of the Pantex plant near Amarillo. The employees notified plant officials, who called Terry's office and asked for an investigation. Pantex officials then closed the plant for a couple hours."

The plant is adding a second system in September to remove groundwater from a shallow aquifer and filter it to remove high explosives and chromium from earlier work there. With two systems in place, the plant will be pumping 850,000 gallons per day from 76 wells, said Dennis Huddleston, division manager of the projects division of Pantex.

"The United States, in an effort to be "as transparent as we can be" in the words of Hilary Clinton, recently announced it has 5,113 in its nuclear stockpile, and thousands more retired warheads awaiting the junk-pile. President Obama recently signed a new agreement with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev called The New START Treaty that will reduce current American and Russian stockpiles to 1550. So I started thinking, "What happens to all that uranium after the bombs are dismantled?" It seems a lot of the disarming process is merely paperwork. According to an article called "Where nuclear weapons go to die" by Jeffrey Lewis and Meri Lugo, a nuclear weapon is taken off the active list and put in storage, if it is not there already, or shipped to a company called Pantex in Texas to be disassembled. The authors say that during the Clinton administration, more than 1,000 warheads were dismantled a year, but since 2000, employees at Pantex have spent most of their time "refurbishing operational nuclear warheads to extend their life." They say there are some 4,000 nuclear weapons waiting in line to be dismantled. But this doesn't answer the question of where the uranium ends up once the bomb has been taken apart."

If your kid accidentally blew apart a building, would you give them less supervision? This hands-off approach is exactly what the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is doing by giving the contractors who manage the nation's eight nuclear weapons sites (Los Alamos National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Nevada Test Site, Sandia National Laboratory, Savannah River Site, Pantex, Y-12, and the Kansas City Plant) a six-month break from many regularly scheduled oversight reviews.

If your kid accidentally blew apart a building, would you give them less supervision? This hands-off approach is exactly what the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is doing by giving the contractors who manage the nation's eight nuclear weapons sites (Los Alamos National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Nevada Test Site, Sandia National Laboratory, Savannah River Site, Pantex, Y-12, and the Kansas City Plant) a six-month break from many regularly scheduled oversight reviews.