page_title: Federal Protective Forces
section_title: Mid-2000s Pantex issues
hierarchical_section_title: Federal Protective Forces / Key issues / Incidents / Mid-2000s Pantex issues
context_page_description: The Federal Protective Forces are paramilitary forces of the United States Department of Energy responsible for the protection of Category I special nuclear material. Though officially classified as security police, they have limited law enforcement authority and are, instead, equipped and trained to respond to serious incidents at Department of Energy facilities by armed adversaries and to reacquire stolen nuclear material. The FPFs have been described, by the DOE, as "elite fighting forces" designed to operate in "combat environments".
context_section_description: In 2006 the Department of Energy Inspector General received complaints from inside the Pantex Plant that Protective Forces were not being issued the correct night-vision equipment to safely operate their Mk 19 grenade launchers, a complaint it later substantiated after an investigation, though the NNSA rejected the report's findings.
  The following year, 524 members of the Protective Forces detachment at Pantex, whose personnel were provided by BWX Technologies, went on strike in protest of the Department of Energy's decision to revise the pension and medical benefits it provided to contractors. During the 44-day strike, a 210-man replacement force, composed of supervisors and non-unionized personnel assigned to other Department of Energy sites, was assembled to secure Pantex. Both the National Council of Security Police, the union for Protective Forces personnel, and the Project on Government Oversight called for Pantex to be shut down during the dispute due to what was claimed to be a serious erosion of the security of nuclear weapons stored at the facility. The Department of Energy rejected claims that the security of nuclear material was compromised during the strike.
caption: Concerns about the safe operation of Mk 19 grenade launchers at night by the Protective Forces prompted an Inspector General investigation in 2006.
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