09:20 PM PST on Thursday, March 18, 2004

By GLENN FARLEY / KING 5 News

SEATTLE – An incident four months ago that only recently came to light had two Washington Congressmen demanding answers from the Navy Thursday afternoon.

The U.S. Navy won't talk about how it handles nuclear missiles. But that silence has raised serious questions with Representatives Jay Inslee and Norm Dicks about a case that so far has resulted in serious review by the Navy into safety procedures on the Bangor Base and a meeting Thursday with the Admiral who heads the Navy's Strategic Systems Programs.

KING The Trident nuclear submarine is considered the most powerful weapons system on the planet.

The Trident nuclear submarine is considered the most powerful weapons system on the planet and the Navy's Bangor Submarine Base is one of only two places in the U.S. that services those subs.

Published reports and government sources said a mishap occurred last November 7 inside a building at the Explosives Handling Wharf.

While one of the C-4 missiles was being extracted from a submarine, a ladder mistakenly left inside a silo scraped, then punctured a nose cone. The Navy was so alarmed over the incident, they relieved officers of their command and are court-martialing several enlisted men.

But no one outside of the Navy was ever informed until recently – not the local county emergency management agency, not even Congress.

"There is a better way to do this than the way it's been handled. And we're going to be insisting the Navy review these policies so the public can have better information about that," said Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Washington.

"It's essentially a dirty bomb. You'd have plutonium spread," said Glen Milner, a peace activist, who has tried to pry information out of the Bangor Submarine Base for years through the Freedom of Information Act, and even lawsuits.

He doesn't fear a nuclear explosion, but rather an accident involving a missile's solid propellant that could be deadly, breaking open the warheads and spreading plutonium.

A film he says he obtained from the Navy shows a propellant detonation.

"The whole region could be contaminated by this radioactive fallout," he said.

But the chance of a detonation is considered extremely remote and the Navy has built a reputation for safety, whether it involves the handling of nuclear materials or aircraft during war.

"I do not believe that my neighbors or my family – I live in Kitsap County – were at risk for our physical safety from this particular incident," said Inslee.

But the conditions exist through the propellant and the missile system, that plutonium, if released in the environment, can be fatal even with a dust speck.

But Rep. Inslee is also worried about the combination of rocket propellant and nuclear warheads. He said safety procedures must be made more redundant and he was told that the Navy's safety review had done that.