Water leaked into a plutonium pit-storage area at the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, after an August thunderstorm, the Department of Energy disclosed this month.
On Aug. 13 and 14, thunderstorms dumped about 2 inches of rain on the north Texas city, according to data compiled by the National Weather Service. During the storm, “rain water entered and covered the floor in some facilities, including a Zone 12 South MAA [Material Access Area] facility,” the Department of Energy said in an Oct. 6 report.
Zone 12 hosts bays for nuclear-weapon assembly and disassembly, including storage space for plutonium pits: the fissile cores of nuclear weapons.
The Department of Energy’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) oversees the Pantex Plant, which is operated by contractor Consolidated Nuclear Security: a partnership of Bechtel National, Leidos, Orbital ATK, and SOC. The NNSA assembles and disassembles substantially all U.S. nuclear weapons at Pantex.
The leak was mopped up, but it potentially made the weapons plant less safe, at least for a little while. The NNSA said the rainwater that leaked into Pantex brought “dirt and other matter” with it, which “potentially” decreased the floor’s dissipation properties. The floors in this area must be able to conduct electricity swiftly to the ground, and after the floodwater intrusion, “it was found that a few points [of the floor] had higher than acceptable resistance.”
In the report, the agency said prior leaks “in other areas” of the weapons facility did not have the same effect on the floor. The agency discovered the potential safety issue after testing the entire floor of the affected facility, which is a standard procedure after a leak.
“This is the first time the floor has failed a re-test after a water intrusion event,” according to the report.
It was not clear why it took almost two months for Pantex personnel to report the leak’s potentially detrimental effect on plant safety to DOE. The contractor had not replied to a request for comment by deadline for Weapons Complex Morning Briefing.
