Tuesday, January 03, 2006

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (AP) -- Officials at the Idaho National Laboratory said a gun-wielding security guard arrested Sunday never posed a threat to the nuclear research facility.

The man, who hasn't been identified, was arrested after he barricaded himself into a secure area of the facility with a handgun and threatened to harm himself.

The incident started at around 10 a.m., and the man was taken into custody at around 12:45 p.m., said INL spokesman John Walsh.

Nobody was injured. It's not yet known if charges will be filed, Walsh said.



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The INL is an 890-square-mile U.S. Energy Department complex in the isolated desert of eastern Idaho, with headquarters in Idaho Falls. It has one of the largest advanced reactors in the country. INL workers conduct nuclear research and national security-related projects at the INL campus.

Walsh said he didn't know how long the security guard had been employed at the INL, the guard's name or his age. Nor could he say whether the guard would be permitted back to his job.

"The situation will have to be evaluated," he said.

Walsh said the incident began after the guard reported to work at 7 a.m. Sunday, left a note -- the contents of which were not released -- and then walked out of the building to a fenced area used for checking vehicles as they arrive at the INL.

"Other security officers saw him and alerted the response team, and so at that point they got him under observation and tried to communicate with him and were eventually able to get him into custody," Walsh said.

There are about 300 guards employed at the INL, Walsh said.

Environmental groups have expressed concerns about safety at the INL, which is about 100 miles west of Jackson, Wyo., and upwind of Yellowstone National Park.

Last week, a Wyoming group called Keep Yellowstone Nuclear Free questioned the U.S. Department of Energy's plan to build a new plutonium production plant at the INL to produce plutonium-238. The group has safety concerns based on documents it obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, said Tom Patricelli, president of KYNF.

And earlier last month, groups called for more disclosure on accidents at INL. In November, a propane line sprung a leak, leading to the evacuation of hundreds of workers. And in the past year there have been 21 cases of INL workers accidentally contaminated with radioactive material; in all cases, the exposure was classified as negligible.

Leaders of environmental groups which monitor INL -- the Snake River Alliance, Environmental Defense Institute and Patricelli's group -- asked DOE in a Nov. 20 letter to put the so-called "occurrence reports" online instead of being released only in response to written requests.

The DOE sent out a press release about Sunday's security guard incident

   At every EIS I have asked to reveal the disgruntled employee impacts. INL’s original meltdown came from the lover’s triangle that erupted with the SL-I reactor sabotage that impaled the jealous lover’s enemy and fellow employee into the roof. Two years ago a California nuclear plant worker was threatening his work place. Like many Americans, he had access to illegal weaponry and was caught with an anti-tank rocket launcher, luckily, before he could use it.

   But we must scope these Environmental Impacts if we are to be honest for the first time in an EIS from DOE.

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