CHAPTER
85
SUPER NUCLEAR FUEL?
Puller stared at Cole. This time she wouldn’t meet his eye. Instead she looked distractedly at the floor.
Puller said, “Mr. Larrimore, I found a piece of paper at a firehouse near the Drake facility.”
“I know the firehouse well. We had a couple of incidents where those fellers were needed.”
“The paper had the numbers 92 and 94 written on it.”
“Atomic numbers for uranium and plutonium.”
“Right. But the gaseous diffusion method is only used to enrich uranium,” said Puller. “You can’t use gaseous diffusion on plutonium. You get that from breeder reactors.”
“That’s right. Capturing a neutron. Getting to P-239.”
“But if that document had both atomic numbers that means—”
“We used both uranium and plutonium at Drake.”
“Why?”
“Like I said, to try and build a super nuclear fuel for weapons. We had no idea if it would work or not. The goal was to use uranium and plutonium in a new bomb design. We were juggling combinations and concentrations of each to see what configuration would yield the biggest boom. In layman’s terms, sort of a hybrid between the gun and the implosion method, if you understand me.”
“I was told that the gun method was very inefficient and plutonium couldn’t be used in that design.”
“Those were the obstacles we were trying to overcome. We were trying to beat the communists at their own game. And the name of that game was explosive yield.”
“But you said you screwed up?”
“Well, let’s just say the science and the design logic were flawed. Bottom line was it didn’t work. That was why the facility closed.”
“But if they closed the plant surely they would have taken the nuclear material with them?”
“The fact that they covered it with three feet of cement tells me they didn’t.”
“But why the hell would they leave something that deadly behind?”
Larrimore didn’t answer for a few seconds. “This would be a guess on my part.”
“I’ll take it.”
“They were probably afraid it would blow up in their faces and radiate a good part of the country. I can’t say I was totally surprised when you said they’d cemented over it. Back then they covered up a lot of stuff, quite frankly. Let it stay where it was. Probably thought it was safer than trying to transport it. You’re probably way too young to remember this, but around that time a few incidents happened that scared the crap out of the country. A B-52 that was carrying a hydrogen bomb on one of its wings crashed somewhere in Kansas. The bomb didn’t detonate during the crash, of course, because atomic weapons don’t work that way. And then we had the plutonium train.”
“Plutonium train?”
“Yeah, the military wanted to move some of its plutonium stockpile from point A to point B. Right across the country. Train moved through major population centers. Nothing happened, but the news folks got wind of both the plane and the train. It was not a good time for the military. There were hearings on Capitol Hill and some guys lost their stars. Can you imagine if that happened today? With our twenty-four-hour news cycle? Anyway, that was fresh in everyone’s minds back then, especially the military brass. So I guess they said, ‘Screw it. It stays right where it is.’ ”
“And the place they left it was a rural county with not many people.”
“It wasn’t my call. If it had been I would’ve done it differently.”
“You’d think someone would have revisited the issue.”
“Not necessarily. You go out there now and start messing around, the news folks will get wind of it. Then the government has to start explaining. And maybe they were afraid that if they did open the sucker up they wouldn’t like what they found.”
“It’s been five decades,” Puller said. “Do you think that stuff, if it is there, is still dangerous?”
“Plutonium-239 has a half-life of twenty-four thousand years. So I’d say you aren’t out of the woods yet.”
Puller drew a long breath and looked at Cole. “How much of it is in there?”
“I can’t tell you for sure. But let me put it this way. If they kept the usual supply on hand that we maintained, and it got out somehow, it could make what we did to the Japs look puny by comparison. I tell you what, whoever made the call to leave it there should go to prison. But they’re probably all dead by now.”
“Lucky them,” commented Puller.
Larrimore said, “So what are you folks going to do?”
“We need to get inside the dome. Any ideas?”
Cole tapped him on the arm and mouthed, “Mineshaft.”
He shook his head and looked back at the phone. “Any ideas?” he said again.
“Three feet of concrete, son. You got a jackhammer?”
“We have to do it surreptitiously.”
Puller could hear Larrimore take several long breaths.
“You think somebody’s going to… ?” His voice trailed off.
“We can’t afford not to think that, can we? You probably knew that place as well as anyone. Anything you can think of would be more than what I’ve got right now.”
“Can you dig along the perimeter?”
“Iron footings that go out more feet than I can deal with.”
Several more long breaths. Puller looked at Cole and she stared back at him. The room wasn’t hot, but he saw several beads of sweat on her forehead. One slid down to her cheek. She made no move to wipe it away. Puller could feel the perspiration sheen on his face.
Larrimore said, “Ventilation shafts.”
Puller sat up straighter. “Okay.”
“Inside of the facility was not a place where you could let dust and other things collect, and we also had stuff in the air that we had to get out. We had about as powerful a ventilation and filtering system as you could get back then. We had ventilation shafts on the east and west sides. The filtering system was massive. It wasn’t housed in the facility for a number of reasons. The air would be directed there, filtered, and recirculated inside the facility. Place didn’t have any windows for obvious reasons. All self-contained. It could get hot in there, especially about this time of year.”
“I’ll need to know exactly where those shafts are. And where was the filtering system housed?”
“I can tell you roughly where the shafts were located. It’s been over forty years since I’ve been there, son. Memory’s not perfect. But I know exactly where the filtering system was located. And both the shafts bleed directly into it. And those shafts are big. Large enough for a tall man to stand up in.”
“Where is the filtering system?” Puller said eagerly.
“Right underneath the firehouse.”
Puller and Cole exchanged glances.
Larrimore said, “Figured that was the best place to put it. Always a fire hazard with filtering systems. Anything goes wrong, folks are right there to take care of it. The fire station was manned around the clock. The filtering system was alarmed so they’d know if there was a problem.”
“How do you get to the filtering system from the fire station?”
“You been there?”
“Yes.”
“You seen the wooden lockers? I’m talking the ones on the right side, main level.”
“Yes.”
“There’s a catch behind a panel on the inside of the locker farthest to the left. You can’t tell it’s there if you don’t know where to look. There’s a pressure plate in the inside of that locker. It’s located on the left side, top corner. You push right in that corner and the panel will swing out on hinges. Behind the panel is a lever. You pull that lever and the whole row of lockers slides out to the right. Stairway going down is revealed. Nifty piece of engineering. Those stairs take you to the filtering system. And from there you can get to the shafts.”
He said, “I appreciate this, Mr. Larrimore.”
“Agent Puller. If you’re really going in that place, keep a few things in mind. Wear a hazmat suit with the most powerful filter you can find. Bring a flashlight because you’ll have no light. The plutonium and uranium cakes are in lead-lined barrels. The plutonium cakes are marked in red with the skull-and-crossbones insignia. The uranium cakes are blue with the same skull and crossbones. We were working in a brand-new field and used our own marking system.”
“So they’re cakes?”
“Right. The ‘fuel’ term is sort of misleading. The uranium and plutonium look like round cakes. They’re both radioactive at the highly enriched level. But plutonium is super-radioactive. The plant workers handled the stuff using robotic arms behind protective shields. Even your hazmat suit probably won’t protect you completely against direct exposure. And one more thing, Agent Puller.”
“Yeah?”
“I wish you luck, son. You’re sure as hell going to need it.”