Report: Radiation in bunker 7 times above normal

EL PASO, TEXAS — A military report says a contaminated bunker discovered at a West Texas military post had nearly seven times more than the level of accepted radiation.

The El Paso Times obtained a July 3 report on the bunker at the Biggs Army Airfield at Fort Bliss in El Paso.

The newspaper reported that military inspectors found high levels of uranium in one specific location. University of Texas at El Paso expert John Walton says the amount of contamination was “not huge.”

Walton says workers in the bunker may have inhaled or swallowed contaminated paint chips, which would have led to a “very small and limited exposure of soldiers” over a half-century.

That lines up with Fort Bliss officials’ statements downplaying the threat of radiation exposure from the bunker.