Audit Finds Multiple Security Lapses at Y-12 Nuclear Facility
Contractors in charge of guarding the national stockpile of bomb-grade uranium in Tennessee knew long before an 82-year-old nun and two other pacifists broke through three barriers this summer that much of the facility’s security equipment was broken – and government managers knew it too, according to an article from the New York Times.
According to an internal audit of Energy Department operations at the weapons facility, which found “troubling displays of ineptitude,” the Y-12 facility’s internal communications were generally so poor that officers told auditors that it was not unusual for roofers or utility repair personnel to show up unannounced. They also told authorities that when they heard the trespassers banging on the exterior wall of the storage building with hammers, they assumed it was maintenance workers, the New York Times reports.