Sheeeesh! Now they tell me about the nukes stored in my town

Sunday, November 14, 2004
ABQ Officials Mum on Nuclear Bombs, but Info Widely Available
By Jim Ludwick
Albuquerque Journal Staff Writer

As city officials discuss terrorism and preparedness, it has never been easier for people worldwide to learn about the nuclear bombs and warheads stored on the edge of Albuquerque, as well as their arrival by truck and aircraft.

Defense analyses, technical journals, aerial photographs and even information about security measures can be quickly found on the Internet. The material has been posted by a wide variety of sources, including scientific organizations and the federal government itself.

It paints a remarkable picture of the city's worst-kept and most important secret?- the federal storage of an estimated 685 nuclear bombs and 1,825 warheads for intercontinental ballistic missiles, air-launched cruise missiles, ground-launched cruise missiles and short-range attack missiles.

City councilors and the mayoral administration have been discussing the nuclear munitions amid concern about emergency planning. Councilor Miguel Gómez has been calling for greater preparedness and expanded conversations between the city and the military.

That could be difficult because the military won't directly acknowledge the existence of the weapons. But the Energy Department used the Internet last month to bluntly solicit employees for armed convoys, based in Albuquerque, to transport nuclear explosives.

"The official policy is that they will neither confirm nor deny that the assets are present," said James Hunter, city emergency manager.

"If the assets are here, as alleged by various publications, they have been here for years. And what is the history of people being hurt by those assets? There is none," he said.

"Am I aware? Yes. Am I concerned? No. Now, if the base commander called and said he needed all 1,000 of our police, I'd worry. But he'd get them."

Robert S. Norris, senior research associate with the Natural Resources Defense Council, said the widely known presence of the weapons doesn't mean Albuquerque has a high danger of terrorism.

He said there would be far more vulnerable targets for terrorists, such as trains carrying hazardous materials.

Norris said the range of targets "is almost infinite" and many with vast implications for the economy or public safety would be much easier to hit than the Albuquerque weapons.

"Trying to hijack a nuclear convoy would be pretty tough," and the storage compound is protected by professionals who take their responsibility seriously, he said. "I have to trust their judgment and hope they are doing everything they can to ensure the highest safety and security possible," Norris said.

The weapons themselves are designed so that even if terrorists breached security, they would not be able to detonate one without a code controlled by the president.

Reports list weapons

A report from The Brookings Institution, a public-policy research group, estimated in 2002 there were 2,510 nuclear weapons in an underground storage complex at Kirtland Air Force Base. It gave numbers for each kind of nuclear bomb and warhead believed to be present?- an update of similar information provided in the late 1990s by defense analysts.

Reports produced by analysts this year have been less detailed but generally consistent. Kirtland is believed to be the largest U.S. storage depot for nuclear weapons and the central hub for their transit.

Two months ago, the Natural Resources Defense Council mentioned the presence in Albuquerque of some additional models of nuclear bombs and warheads that weren't in the Brookings tabulation, but it didn't provide numbers. The council is an environmental group that established the Nuclear Weapons Data Center in 1980 to study munitions.

The Defense Department's policy is "not to confirm or deny the presence of nuclear weapons at a military installation," said 1st Lt. Morgan O'Brien of the public affairs office at Kirtland.

But the scope of available details on the Internet can be startling. In August, security information about Albuquerque storage was posted on a Web site maintained by New York architect John Young, who puts sensitive material on the Internet as an avocation. His Web site previously has dealt with the storage of nerve gas, federal security agency installations and other topics.

His site provides a briefing about the weapons in Albuquerque and includes a description of an electronic security system, based on material from a defense contractor. It touches on facility-access controls, alarm equipment, metal detectors, infrared sensors, video monitoring and other features. The Web site provides road maps and a collection of aerial photographs.

Contacted by the Journal, Young said he performs a public service by helping ordinary people learn what the government is doing. He said he deals with potential hazards so people can protect themselves directly or demand government action.

"People should know more, rather than less, because of the terrorist threat," he said, adding that it would be fruitless "to hide vulnerabilities, hoping that no one will find out. ... Terrorists already know."

Nick Bakas, the city's chief public safety officer, said he was surprised by the information available.

"I don't know how accurate it is, and I don't know how to verify what they are saying," he said.

But Bakas said it's "a fact of life" that sensitive material will be available on the Internet. "We are not a society that is secret," he said. "We are an open society. We don't hide information."

Gómez said it's disturbing that the knowledge is so widespread. "Obviously, we don't want people to have this information, but it's the world we live in. You can keep your head in the sand and pray, but the (Internet) technology is there. We have to deal with reality."

Neither Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., nor Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M., would answer questions about the proliferation of nuclear knowledge. Both have served on armed services committees, and Wilson has served on a select committee on intelligence.

"It's a touchy subject," said Jude McCartin, a spokeswoman for Bingaman. "It's officially not discussed."

Nuke convoys

Nuclear weapons arrive in Albuquerque by airplane and truck. Early this year, the truck transport was discussed in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. There is "a fleet of special 18-wheel tractor-trailers," it said. The trucks use the interstate highway system and "are ruggedly designed. ... Armed federal agents accompany each convoy of one or more trucks and their escort vehicles. The convoys keep in constant communication with Albuquerque," it said.

The Office of Secure Transportation, based in Albuquerque as a part of the Department of Energy, has a Web site that discusses the convoys. It says the trailers are "designed to protect the cargo against damage in the event of an accident. This is accomplished through superior structural characteristics and a highly reliable cargo tie-down system similar to that used aboard aircraft."

The trailers could be "totally engulfed in a fire without incurring damage to the cargo. The tractors are standard production units that have been modified to provide the federal agents protection against attack," it says.

A recruiting brochure for the agency, also available on the Internet, advertised last month for "highly capable individuals" to work as nuclear material couriers on truck convoys or air shipments. It said the couriers "may be called upon to use deadly force if necessary to prevent the theft, sabotage or takeover of protected materials" and they must "express a willingness to work with nuclear explosives."

Norris said shipments to Albuquerque are likely to increase during the next several years. That's because the government is reducing its nuclear weapons stockpile, and many of those weapons will be brought to Albuquerque for storage until they proceed to the Pantex plant near Amarillo, where they will be dismantled, he said.

"Kirtland will be ever more important. Thousands more nuclear weapons are headed its way," Norris said.

He said emergency preparedness "has always been a very delicate issue, with the federal government never sharing much information with local government. It has to do with the convoys that travel the interstates, going through cities. ... I don't know what arrangements have ever been discussed."