RICHLAND, Wash. -- More than 2,800 pounds of plutonium, a highly radioactive substance used in the production of nuclear weapons, were unaccounted for in the 30 years before 1979 at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, it was reported.
But the operations manager for the U.S Department of Energy at Hanford said Monday he is not worried about the missing material.
'I would not use the word 'missing',' Michael Lawrence told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. 'We think these numbers are hypothetical.'
Lawrence said plutonium production quantities are 'estimates' and subject to 'statistical variations' so there is a possibility 'that it was never made in the first place.'
He also said some of the plutonium may be in pipes in various plants at Hanford.
Officials at the nuclear reservation have also suggested that an unknown quantity of plutonium from the 1940s and 1950s was discharged into the ground to cribs and burial tanks.
Lawrence's comments came in response to a report on Department of Energy documents dating up through 1979 that show about 1,000 kilograms, or 2,800 pounds, of plutonium were unaccounted for over a 30-year period at Hanford.
The report was published last weekend in the Portland Oregonian newspaper.
Officials at Hanford contend that numerous safeguards make it almost impossible for anyone to steal plutonium from the site.
Two plutonium production plants at Hanford, both operated by Rockwell International, are currently closed because of what Lawrence described as a flaw in the company's methods of handling plutonium.
Rockwell general manager Paul Lorenzini has said no plutonium was lost and most of the problems at the plants were solved.
