European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 16, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Thursday january 16, 1992 the stars and stripes b Page 3yeltsin fires Back at food suppliers St. Petersburg Russia a Boris n. Yeltsin is getting an earful from demoralized shoppers As he Tours Russia and news reports said wednesday that he ordered the director of a meat factory fired for sabotaging his reforms. Consumers Are angry that in addition to soaring prices the russian presidents efforts to Spur a shift to a Market based Economy have not put More goods on the shelves. Yeltsin has vowed not to Back away from the reforms and is urging patience saying they need six to eight months to produce results. A fall civilized countries have gone through this a Yeltsin told about 300 people in front of a sewing factory tuesday in the City of nov Ozybko about 240 Miles Southwest of Moscow. Wednesday Yeltsin arrived in St. Petersburg where earlier this month an angry crowd shouted for his resignation and blocked the main Street of Nevsky Prospect after a meat store ran out of supplies. At a meat store tuesday in the Bryansk Region of Southern Russia Yeltsin accused state suppliers of undermining his reforms by producing High Cost luxury goods when Staples Are scarce. A these swindlers Are doing it on purpose to Frame us setting these prices a Yeltsin said in an Exchange shown on russian television. A the people Are very displeased with the prices. The prices Are not acceptable a interrupted one of the shopkeepers. Yeltsin also expressed outrage at the High Price of smoked sausage find said meat processing plants should produce More Low Cost goods like boiled sausage. A i think this is a provocation a the president said his voice rising. A the head of the meat processing factory ought to be fired thrown out of his  indeed Yeltsin later ordered that the factory director be fired the russian Media reported wednesday. As president he has the Power to fire most state employees. He was also said to have ordered the russian president Boris n. Yeltsin widely criticized for persistent economic woes is offered a Friendly traditional greeting of bread and Salt in the City of Bryansk on tuesday. Firing of the Deputy chairman of the local committee dealing with the aftermath of the chernobyl nuclear Accident. The panel has been criticized for failing to ensure worker safety and moving too slowly to build housing for people evacuated from the contaminated zone. On Jan. 2, the russian presidents free Market reforms stripped away decades of strict Kremlin controls on prices to curb inflation. But shoppers Are complaining not Only about the spectacularly High Cost of goods but that the shelves Are Bare. Yeltsin said tuesday that stores should be allowed to buy food directly from producers. He did not elaborate but seemed to be talking about eliminating the middlemen a the monopolies and bureaucrats he accuses of trying to wreck reforms. A Survey of prices in Moscow on tuesday found that they vary wildly from store to store. Sugar which has been rationed in Moscow is still scarce As is milk. The associated press Moscow Market Basket a weekly Survey of 15 food and Basic consumer items showed that state store prices for Staples such As Macaroni and smoked sausage have doubled from the week before. A Pound of Macaroni a 1.1 rubles in state stores on Jan. 2 and 3.2 rubles on Jan. 8 a Cost 7.58 rubles on tuesday meaning a russian at the average 960-Ruble monthly wage would have to work 1.38 hours for it. The Rise was sharper on private markets with Macaroni s Price increasing from 11.4 rubles last week to 27 rubles  arms come full Circle at Texas facility by David Tarrant staff writer ask Tom Walton what its like to take apart a nuclear bomb and hell Tell you its not much different from stripping the engine on your car. Walton is a spokesman for the panted Plant a Little known department of Energy facility located on the Windy Plains of West Texas where All the nuclear warheads in Europe will ultimately meet their maker. Operating since the Early 1950s, the panted Plant just outside Amarillo Texas is the nations Only nuclear weapons Assembly and disassembly facility. A a it a done right Here a said Walton. A a we re the Only facility in the country of this Type so All of the warheads projectiles and bombs will come Back Here eventually. If its a nuclear weapon it starts Here and it ends  panted Only works on the warhead portion of nuclear weapons. A we do not get involved in the delivery systems. We done to mess with the air planes we done to mess with the missiles and we done to mess with big guns a he said. A fall we assemble and disassemble out Here is the actual bomb warhead or artillery projectile a Walton said in a Telephone interview with the stars and stripes. Once the bombs arrive at panted they Are kept in temporary Concrete storage facilities known As a igloos until they can be worked into pan text a Busy schedule for disassembly. A a we be got our work Cut out for us a Walton said. Secretary of Energy James d. Watkins said recently that the Plant would be disassembling l,000-to-2,000 warheads a year for a half dozen years from both overseas and stateside stockpiles. Walton  discuss details of How the warheads Are dismantled. But he said in essence its simply the reverse of the Way the weapons Are put together. And its not much different from the Way an Auto Mechanic strips the engine of a car he said. A if you were to pull your car up on your driveway you know with the engine being the warhead and the car being the delivery system you have to take the engine out and that Sall that comes Back Here to panted a he said. A and then you take your wrenches and your special if it s a nuclear weapon it starts Here and it ends Here a torn Walton tooling your winches and whatever it takes and you Start taking that engine All apart. And when you get through you no longer have an engine you just have a driveway full of spare parts. A a that a basically what we do Here. We take the warhead or the bomb in the Plant. Our workers Are trained and certified to do this kind of work and they Start taking it All apart. And when they get through Why All of these hundreds of parts Are now just nothing More than  if the image that comes to mind is of a combination chemistry Laboratory and workshop panted is anything but that. The modern bomb Plant is not a Small facility. Located on a sprawling 16,000-acre site the Plant includes 300 buildings. Its work Force a a mix or department of Energy employees and civilians under government contract a totals about 2,750 people. The Plant operates under extremely tight safety regulations. Nobody can get on the site unless the person has have business there. All panted employees have to go through a very stringent Security clearance. After the military delivers the nuclear weapons to various Sites in the states the department of Energy picks up the weapons by truck or rail for transport to the Texas facility. Walton explained that most of the work is done by hand and after disassembly a you just have miscellaneous  there Are risks involved in the work especially when workers Are handling the High explosive portion of the warhead a which contains non nuclear pure chemical explosive materials. But the Plant is designed to eliminate As Manv risks of an Accident As possible Walton said. That s Why floors Are covered with a rubberized coating to Cushion the Impact of sensitive tools or components that might fall. In some areas of the facility workers cannot carry electronic calculators because of the possibility that they could cause interference with Ultra sensitive equipment. Walton said there has never been an explosion during the Assembly or disassembly of the weapons. The nuclear components of the bomb will either be kept in storage vaults at panted or other . Sites until the United states decides on a final disposition of the materials. Tritium and uranium go Back to the original plants. Tritium is shipped to the Savannah River site in South Carolina. The highly enriched uranium will be stockpiled in Oak Ridge Tenn. Panted is currently holding the hardened encased plutonium parts on its grounds