Army Plays Down Danger of Nuke Leak
Stray radioactive particles are confined to the ground of a single structure at Fort Bliss in Texas, the U.S. Army said on Friday, minimizing earlier worries that contaminants had escaped from the site used to assemble and hold nuclear arms in the early Cold War, the Associated Press reported.
A previously applied layer of epoxy is keeping radiological material fixed to the building's interior walls, and none has passed into water in the earth below, base spokesman Maj. Joe Buccino said.
Extensive analysis turned up no evidence that radioactive substances had spread to firearms held more recently in the shed and used in exercises, Buccino added in an Army statement issued on Friday. He said personnel would carry out further assessments.
Specialists would consult eyewitnesses and records in an effort to locate radiation-tainted materials said to have been interred nearby, AP quoted Buccino as saying. It is unclear how much radioactive waste is in the ground at the base, the El Paso Times quoted an Air Force Safety Center spokeswoman as saying on Thursday.
Buccino said inspectors would only examine other base locations for radiological traces in response to specific warnings.
"We can't go on a witch hunt," he stated.
