Report Faults Security in Weapons Plant Breach

Sixteen foreign-born construction workers with phony immigration documents were able to enter a nuclear weapons plant in eastern Tennessee because of lax security controls, a federal report said.

Controls at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge have since been tightened, and there was no evidence the workers had access to any sensitive documents, said the National Nuclear Security Administration, which oversees nuclear weapons facilities for the Department of Energy.

The department inspector general’s office said in the report that its agents found “official use only” documents “lying unprotected in a construction trailer which was accessed by the foreign construction workers” at the plant.