European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - September 20, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Sunday september 20, 1987 the stars and stripes Page 5 bid to invoke War Powers act rejected by 50-41 Senate vote Washington 986. This Means the group said either that the aging facility is becoming much dirtier in its operations or thai opera tors arc not keeping tract of the production of plutonium an extremely toxic substance. Dupont which runs the facility disputed the claims but said some of the evidence to support its position is Classi fied or in draft form. The environmental group specializes in nuclear matters involving the military this report its second on the Savannah River Plant is entitled evading the deadly issues corporate mismanage ment of America s nuclear weapon  Savannah River a 300-Square-Raile Complex of reactors and reprocessing Plant Southeast of Augusta a. Hat been plagued by continuing problems. Two of its reactors arc now shut Down by cracks and other flaws and others Are running at leu than so percent Power after a study found that they had been operated for years at what May have been unsafe temperatures. More than three quarters of the radioactivity from the nation s military waste is held in 51 tanks which each hold 750,000 to 1.3 million Gallons of the liquid waste which remains after the fuel from the reactors is stripped of its Pluto mum. Two types of explosions a Hydrogen explosion and organic vapor explosion Are possible according to both Dupont and the environmental group. A 1978 safety analysis by the depart ment of Energy quoted by the Environ mental group said there is a on in 10,000 Chance of a Hydrogen explosion. The company and the department say thai the probability of explosion from organic Vapours is i 0 limes higher or one in 1,000, according to Arjun Makhijani a researcher with the environmental group. Taking into account the number and individual vulnerability of tank. He said the Chance of any one of them suffering an explosion is one in so. Harry Harmon do font s research manager for the tanks said a new safety analysis puts the probability of a Hydro Gren explosion in one in 23,000. He also said that the new study showed Only one of the tanks had organic Vapours and that in was protected by safety systems. He would not describe the a Pori in detail however saying in was still in draft form. Robert Alvarez director of the Institute s nuclear project said their method is in draft form available for them to juggle in secret. There is some Lack of Wiconi Ifica integrity to release the results and not release the