The Nation - News from Feb. 12, 1987

An unannounced inspection found security lapses at a plant producing nuclear weapons in Texas, where inspectors simulated a plutonium theft and had a weapon smuggled into the facility, declassified congressional transcripts show. The security breaches caused the Energy Department to close the Pantex plant near Amarillo for five days in 1985, and Energy Secretary John S. Herrington said security has since been tightened at all nuclear facilities. The phony theft was planned by federal inspectors who were aided by a plant employee, and a pistol with a silencer was smuggled into Pantex as a security test.