Nuclear bomb nearly exploded in Texas

Mishap In Dismantling Nuclear Warhead

A watchdog group charges a nuclear warhead nearly exploded in Texas when it was being dismantled at the government’s Pantex facility near Amarillo. The Project on Government Oversight says it has been told by knowledgeable experts that the warhead nearly detonated in 2005 because an unsafe amount of pressure was applied while it was being disassembled, The Austin American-Statesman reports.

The U.S. Energy Department fined the plant’s operators $110,000 last month.

An investigator for Project on Government Oversight says the weapon involved was a W-56 warhead with 100 times the destructive power of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

The watchdog group says the problem was caused in part by technicians at the plant being required to work up to 72 hours each week.

They released an anonymous letter, reportedly sent by Pantex employees, warning that long hours and efforts to increase output were causing dangerous conditions at the plant.

A spokesperson for the Energy Department declined to respond to safety complaints in the letter.

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I do no know if this story is hyped (or how much) or not.

The media made no effort to distinguish what type of explosion was allegedly almost triggered. Was it the high explosive or the fissionable material or both? Were the material together at the time? Could the alleged potential explosion triggered a chain reaction, or would it just be a dirty bomb, or would it just been a conventional explosion?

Couldn’t they have spent a little bit more time on the report to make it more informative and technically correct.

The media gets on my nerves. They feed you these little confusing bits of info.

Of course the media source is a watchdog group. I’m in favor of having watchdog groups, unfortunately they are bad about running around and making a big deal of nothing and biting innocent people (figuratively).

The media is bad about distorting information so I am normally skeptical, but when it gets its information from a watchdog group, I tend to have an even higher degree of skepticism.

Some of these stupid news reports remind me of one of George Carlin’s early news reports skits. It was something like; Russia launches ICBMs, details at 11.

Nukes are normally made to be extremely difficult to trigger accidentally. I’m not sure that crazy guys in North Korea or Iran would take the same design precautions.