Another Explosive My Town Monday Post

Those of you my age or older may remember the old safety drills at school. The ones that were supposed to prepare you in case of an overhead bomb attack. The Cold war Era policy that hiding beneath your desk with your hands interlocked over the back of your tucked head seemed ridiculous to me even in grade school. Especially since nuclear bombs seemed to be the tthreat most people feared most.

But for those of us living in or near Amarillo the drills were particularly asinine. Why? Because of this place.
What it is you say? Glad you asked. This is an aerial shot I found on the internet of the Pantex Plant located sixteen miles east of Amarillo.

What is the Pantex Plant? It is the United States only assembly and disassembly plant for nuclear weapons.

Here is some info I gathered from a website called Global Security.

Pantex Plant's primary mission is to:

• Assemble nuclear weapons for the nation's stockpile
• Disassemble nuclear weapons being retired from the stockpile
• Evaluate, repair, and retrofit nuclear weapons in the stockpile
• Demilitarize and sanitize components from dismantled nuclear weapons
• Provide interim storage for plutonium pits from dismantled nuclear weapons
• Develop, fabricate, and test chemical explosives and explosive components for nuclear weapons and to support Department of Energy (DOE) initiatives.

Fissile Material: Total quantity of plutonium is 66.1 metric tons, including Department of Defense quantities (February 6, 1996).

Call me crazy, but I don't think covering your neck with your hands is going to save you when you have 66.1 metric tons of plutonium a few miles away. I'll confess that my knowledge of the place is based mostly on rumor and speculation since information about the joint is sketchy at best.

I do have family that works there but let's jsut say they are highly discouraged to chat about the procedures and working operations of the plant. When my family was hired the FBI came around and talked to neighbors and such and this was long before the heightened security awareness that came with 9/11. Actually I am surprised by the amount of info and pictures available on the web.

I have always heard that the explosives and what not are buried deep beneath the facility and that the airspace above the grounds is restricted. Like this shot of a temporary staging bunker for nuclear weapons that accompanied a story last year in the Washington Post about the guards going on strike.


As a kid I often heard the rumor that Amarillo was on a top ten list of places most likely to get bombed all because of the city's proximity to Pantex. I have no idea if that is true or simply the imagination of kids at work. I suspect the latter unless terrorists, and rogue dictators around the world participate in a Nielson survey of places they'd most like to attack.

I also once read a novel where nuclear engineer gone bad was plotting to steal uranium from Pantex. In the scene just before he was to nab the good the bad guy was talking about how quiet the grounds were at night because there were no crickets because the place was heavily sprayed with pesticide so the noisy critters would not interfere with surveillance equipment. My family that works there assure me there are as many crickets on the grounds as anywhere in the Texas Panhandle so that myth has been debunked.

As with any nuclear facility there are, and have been critics of the plant. A Catholic Bishop once urged all Catholics to quit working at the plant, and a peace group owns and operate the peace farm on adjacent land.

Pantex is one of the highest paying employers in the area, as well as one of the largest with a workforce nearing four thousand people.

As I said I don't profess to know much about the facility. Some of my local readers might know more and if we are lucky they'll chime with a fact or rumor or two in the comments.

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Fellow My Town Monday Participant, Josephine Damian has hit upon a great idea. A My Town Monday book review day. Her suggestion is that we all read and review a novel set in our hometown or area for posting on a future Monday. I like the idea and plan to post mine on May 12th. Hope a few of you join in and do the same. That give you over a month to find and read an appropriate novel. Click on the links below to visit other My Town Monday-ers and if you want to jump and tell us something interesting about your town jump in and drop me a comment so I can link you. By the way if you want to read any of my other posts about Amarillo, Texas clcik on the My Town Monday label at the very bottom of this post.

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THIS WEEK'S MTM PLAYERS AND THEIR TOWNS

Ello ------------------------------ Washington D.C
Josephine Damian ------------- New Rochelle, New York
Lyzzydee ----------------------Welwyn Garden City, England
Sex Scenes at Starbucks ------- Lawrence, Kansas
Terrie Farley Moran ----------- New York City, New York
Debra -------------------------- Village of Peninsula, Ohio
Jason -------------------------- Sugar Creek, Missouri
Clair Dickinson ----------------Livingston County, Michigan
Pattinase ----------------------- Detroit, Michigan
Sam Winston ------------------- Montchauvet, France
DebbieLou --------------------- Bishops Stortford, England
Barrie Summy ----------------- Chandler, Arizona
Carleen Brice ------------------ The power of Cyberville (Check this out for a worthy cause and the oppurtunty for you to help while getting something for youself as well)
Britta Coleman ---------------- Fort Worth, Texas
WordVixen--------------------- Lancaster, Pennsylvania