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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 30, 1991)
Page 10 The Battalion Weapons plant unsafe Pantex workers exposed to radioactive dust WASHINGTON (AP) —Work ers at the Pantex nuclear weap ons plant were exposed for years to depleted uranium dust with out being aware of its radioactive hazard, says a congressional study that criticizes the Amarillo facility for persistent health and safety problems. Pantex, the nation's only final assembly plant for nuclear bombs and missile warheads, was cited in the General Ac counting Office study for having one of the worst occupational safety records in the Energy De partment's weapons complex. GAO also cited the plant for deficiencies in its radiation pro tection program and said two ac cidents resulting in workers be ing exposed to tritium and depleted uranium raise ques tions about the adequacy of Pan- tex's attention to safety and health. "The situation at Pantex indi cates that the message of im proved safety that DOE Secre tary (James) Watkins has been trying to communicate to the nu clear weapons complex has not spread to Pantex," said Rep. Mike Synar, D-Okla., who re quested the GAO investigation. DOE spokesman Harry Phil lips said he could not comment on the report because he had not seen it. Synar, chairman of the Government Operations Sub committee on Environment, En ergy and Natural Resources, re leased the study late Monday. GAO, the congressional watchdog agency, said the En ergy Department cannot be sure the plant is operating safely be cause it has completed fewer than half of its safety analysis re ports. Those reports, GAO said, should have been completed years ago. The "persistent safety and health problems" at Pantex clearly support the need for ex ternal oversight of the plant's safety, GAO said, and the deci sion to exclude Pantex from the independent Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board might warrant a renewed examination of the issue. Congressional staff told GAO that Pantex was excluded from the board's oversight when it was established in 1988 because Pantex was considered a rela tively safe operation. There was also concern that allowing out side review of a plant that as sembled nuclear weapons would result in security risks. "However, these circum stances have changed since 1988 because safety and health prob lems have surfaced at Pantex and outside agencies ... have conducted inspections at Pan tex," the report said. Rep. Bill Sarpalius, D-Am arillo, said he would support having Pantex subject to the board's oversight. Peace talk future looking good JERUSALEM (AP) — Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir on Sun day expressed optimism about the direction of the U.S. drive for peace in the Middle East, and predicted Secretary of State James A. Baker III will return for more talks. "The talks are at their height," Shamir told Israel radio. "There are certain achievements, and agreements are lacking on some points." "I don't think we are in a crisis ... the time has not come for de spair on this matter," he said. Baker abruptly ended his third Mideast peace trip on Friday af ter learning of the death ot his 96-year-old mother. He later issued a statement saying he still needed some an swers from Israel and would meet with President Bush to de cide the next step in peace proc ess. Some observers interpreted the statement as meaning Baker might call off the U.S. drive for peace. Baker has made three trips to the Middle East in the last seven weeks with little apparent result. Shamir, in his radio interview, said his government would not change its view that a peace con- 66 The talks are at their height. — Yitzhak Shamir, prime minister of Israel ference could only meet once then break up into bilateral talks. Israeli news reports said Sha mir took Foreign Minister David Levy to task during a Sunday Cabinet meeting for suggesting Israel might consider reconven ing the conference every six months to hear progress reports on talks with individual Arab states. Levy, speaking on Israel army radio, said his critics were back ing away from something al ready agreed to by Israeli lead ers. "There is nothing I brought up to Baker during our talks that was not known to the prime minister, and all these cnes of despair, all those who are get ting cold feet, can not distort the picture," Levy said. Levy insisted he had not agreed to an international peace conference. Tuesday, April 30,1991! 1 Military hopes victory I will increase funding 1 WASHINGTON (AP) — While Pentagon officials have trimmed their shopping lists in deference to the reduced Soviet threat and budget reali ties, they remain hopeful that the victory in the Persian Gulf will translate into more money for a handful of major weap ons systems. Defense Secretary Dick Che ney has emphasized there will be no backsliding on post- Cold War defense cutbacks that through 1995 will reduce the active force of 2 million by 500,000 and cut Air Force tacti cal fighter wings from 36 to 26. Pentagon officials and inde pendent defense experts agree that while the successes of De sert Storm might add a few years of life to some existing weapons programs and en hance the prospects of a few future projects, there will be no homecoming spending binge as a consequence of the military's newly won prestige. Such stars of the victory over Iraq as the F-15 and F-16 fighters, the AH-64 Apache at tack helicopter, the Navy's A-6 attack plane, the F-117A stealth fighter-bomber and the A-10 Warthog anti-tank plane already have gone out or pro duction or soon will do so. The M-l Abrams tank and the Bradley fighting vehicle also are heading for oblivion, unless their manufacturers can maneuver through the politi cal minefields of finding for eign buyers. Cheney said the value of stealth technology "was reaf firmed in very significant ways" by the radar-piercing performance of the F-117. That, he said, persuaded him . to pursue development of the | B-2 stealth bomber, which has ? a far bigger payload and * greater range than the F-117 j and is designed to replace the elderly B-52 as the nation's i mainstay bomber. But the B-2 also costs $865 ; million a plane, compared i with $106 million for the F-117, I and Congress has only grud | gingly approved production of 7 15 of the 75 wanted by the Air \ Force. One clear winner from the ' Gulf War was Joint STARS, a surveillance system using re designed Boeing 707s that al lows the Air Force to monitor and transmit to ground troop the activities of enemy force- I hundreds of miles away. | The House Armed Service | Committee, saying there was [ no longer a threat of a Sovie:! land attack, last summer voted | to delete $300 million from this year's budget, in effec: [ canceling the $6 billion ]• | STARS program. The budge ! was restored in October, and | now the Air Force might ge: j more than the 20 planes it ha: I ordered through 2001. Another aircraft that rnigh: have eluded the congressiona; I scrap heap is the C-17, the j designatea replacement for! the C-141 transport plane. 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