REACTOR CLEANUP AGAIN DELAYED BECAUSE OF SUSPECTED DRUG USE

Department of Energy officials are further postponing cleanup work at
an Oak Ridge National Laboratory facility on a project already 20
months behind schedule and $10 million over budget.

The latest delay at the Molten Salt Reactor is because of suspected
drug use and other personnel issues, The Knoxville News Sentinel
reports. The cleanup project has been halted since a fluorine leak in May.

"It's one of the harder decisions I've had to make," said Steve
McCracken, who heads the environmental management program in Oak
Ridge. "This thing is costing me money, and I can't seem to get it
done. I need to get it done. I would very much like to get it done."

The cleanup project was on the verge of restarting when marijuana was
reportedly found in a worker's vehicle during an October inspection.
There are also reports of workers smoking pot in a break trailer,
sleeping on the job and playing cards.

One worker was fired on the spot, and two other workers quit their
jobs rather than take mandated drug tests, McCracken said. Bechtel
Jacobs, the managing contractor, ordered tests for all employees
working at Molten Salt after drug-sniffing dogs "hit" on several
areas at the work site.

"The work force had been idled so long that they weren't sharp
anymore, and we were seeing that as we were trying to get ready to go
again," McCracken said. "I really think that's more important than
what they were doing in the break room, except for the drug thing.
Somehow we allowed the work force to lose their edge on how to do this stuff."

McCracken said a full-scale review of operations will be necessary
before cleanup work can begin again.

The Molten Salt Reactor was built in 1960 as an experimental facility
to test reactor concepts, including the use of lithium and beryllium
salts to cool the reactor's fuel. The reactor also tested fissile
uranium-233 as a fuel, substituting it for the U-235.