Todd Jacobson
NS&D Monitor
2/07/2014
Acting National Nuclear Security Administration chief Bruce Held met with Y-12 National Security Complex officials this week and held an all-hands meeting at the plant to address a material accountability incident involving uranium oxide. NNSA spokeswoman Keri Fulton confirmed that an incident involving a small amount of U3O8, triuranium octoxide, a common form of yellowcake uranium, occurred at Y-12 recently, but she declined to provide additional information. NW&M Monitor has learned that a scientist working at the lab’s 9212 facility inadvertently left a sample of the material in his lab coat along with accompanying documentation. The lab coat was taken along with other lab material to be laundered, but the presence of the sample was not caught by an initial scan of the clothing.
The sample was discovered in a subsequent scan by site security when the clothing was being taken out of the most secure area of the facility and into its property protected area. Fulton said there was never a threat to public health or safety. “Because safety and security are our highest priorities, the NNSA and other appropriate authorities continue to investigate,” Fulton said.
NNSA Mum About Details
Aside from an initial statement confirming the incident, the NNSA has been quiet about the events surrounding the discovery of the sample. The incident is believed to have occurred in mid-January, though the NNSA hasn’t specified exactly when it happened and didn’t confirm the occurrence until Jan. 31. Officials with knowledge of the incident said the site’s security system worked as it was supposed to, with a portal monitor discovering the sample after an initial scan by a technician failed. “It was caught as it was supposed to be caught,” the official told NW&M Monitor. “There was a personnel screw up caught by an engineered control. That’s how it’s supposed to work.” Site officials are currently looking into what occurred during the entirety of the incident, from the scientist accidentally leaving the material in his lab coat to the oversight in an initial scan and the subsequent successful identification of the material.
Tensions have been heightened at Y-12 ever since the July 28, 2012, security breach by a trio of elderly protesters led to massive changes at the site and the termination of protective force contractor WSI-Oak Ridge. Held did not respond to a request for comment from NW&M Monitor, but he provided a brief statement to the Knoxville News Sentinel newspaper. “Any anomaly anywhere involving fissile material is serious,” he said. “That said, it was a small sample of uranium oxide, it did not exit the secure area, and there was no threat to worker or public safety. The Y-12 security people did their job.” His all-hands meeting was described as a “pretty upbeat talk” by another official at the site where Held thanked security officials for doing their job.
