A suspicious package triggered an emergency response at the Pantex nuclear-weapon assembly plant in Amarillo, Texas, on Jan. 16, but the details are on a strictly need-to-know basis, according to an official report from the Department of Energy.
“On January 16, 2018, an operational emergency was declared, and the Emergency Response Organization was activated,” reads a notice posted online by the Department of Energy (DOE) on Jan. 19. “The details of this event are limited to a need to know basis.”
“The building for receiving packages and the adjoining building were evacuated as a precautionary measure, but not the full plant,” a spokesperson for the National Nuclear Security Administration said by email Tuesday. “There was no harm to personnel and buildings, and there was no leak of radioactivity.”
The local Amarillo Globe-News newspaper first reported that portions of Pantex were evacuated Jan. 16 because of a suspicious package.
The Bechtel-led Consolidated Nuclear Security has managed Pantex for the NNSA since 2014 under a prime contract worth more than $20 billion over 10 years, including options. The contract also covers management and operations of the Y-12 National Security Complex at Oak Ridge, Tenn.
The Pantex Plant is the only facility that assembles and disassembles U.S. nuclear weapons for refurbishment, repairs, and retirement. The NNSA is in the middle of four warhead upgrades, known officially as either life-extensions or major alterations. These are:
- A life-extension program for the B61 nuclear gravity bomb.
- A life-extension program for the W76 nuclear warhead used on submarine-launched ballistic missiles.
- A life-extension program for the W80 warhead on air-launched cruise missiles.
- A major alteration program for the W88 warhead used on submarine-launched ballistic missiles. The program will replace the warhead’s non-nuclear mechanisms and conventional high-explosive package.
