This Amarillo Woman Devoted Years to Maintaining America’s Nuclear Arsenal. She’s Paid a Hefty Price.

About 25 miles from central Amarillo, past a sleepy stretch of the old Route 66 that’s lined with retro motels alongside Asian and African restaurants, Sarah Dworzack Ray pointed out the “little strange things” peeking up out of the High Plains. Carved into the ground and gravel topped, they were gray igloo-shaped “cells,” built for the processing of highly explosive nuclear material.We were approaching Pantex, the plant where nearly all of America’s nuclear weapons are assembled, dismantled, and maintained. Beside the cells stood a three-story, 348,000-square-foot administration building. Wire fencing, punctuated with signs reading “Warning: Use of Deadly Force Authorized,” enclosed the 17,500-acre property. At the tree-lined main entrance, another sign proclaimed “Pantex Pride! Global security begins here.”Ray long worked at Pantex, where she met…

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