Fire in Building at Nation’s Largest HEU Storage Facility
October 10, 2006
The Project On Government Oversight ( POGO ) has learned that in late September, there was a fire in the main highly-enriched uranium (HEU) storage facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex near Oak Ridge, Tennessee. This complex stores the vast majority of the country’s weapons-grade HEU. It is our understanding that the fire did involve the HEU. The building where the fire occurred, Building 9720-5, is wooden and has been a major concern for decades because of the risk of fire.