Some more uses for duct tape

Not technically aircraft related, but still, an interesting snippet, and a bit scary too.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=542&e=18&u=/ap/nuclear_weapon_tape

Nuke Workers Taped Explosive Components

By MATT KELLEY, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON – Workers dismantling an aging nuclear weapon improperly secured broken pieces of a highly explosive component by taping them together, federal investigators found. An explosion could have occurred, they said.

The incident was among several recent safety lapses at the Energy Department’s Pantex plant near Amarillo, Texas, noted by the independent Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. Last fall, workers taking apart another old warhead accidentally drilled into the warhead’s radioactive core, forcing evacuation of the facility.

This month’s unorthodox handling of the unstable explosive increased the risk that the technicians would drop it and set off a “violent reaction,” the safety board said Tuesday in a letter to Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham (news – web sites).

Such a reaction could have “potentially unacceptable consequences,” board chairman John T. Conway said in the letter, which raised disquieting questions about safety at the Pantex plant.

About 250,000 people live within 50 miles of the Pantex plant, where the motto on its Web site is “Maintaining the safety, security and reliability of America’s nuclear weapons stockpile.”

Nothing exploded, and no one was hurt.

The National Nuclear Security Administration, which oversees the Energy Department’s nuclear weapons programs, is investigating, spokesman Bryan Wilkes said Friday.

“Safety remains a priority for us,” Wilkes said. “We are working to address the issues in the letter.”

Safety board chairman Conway’s letter did not make clear whether the explosive had been separated at the time from the softball-sized chunk of plutonium that forms the pit, or trigger, of a thermonuclear warhead. To prevent a thermonuclear blast, the pit would have to have been separated from the larger warhead.

If the explosive were still connected to the trigger, an explosion could have injured or killed workers and could have spread plutonium or other radioactive materials around the facility.

The taping and removal of the explosive did not go as planned, and only quick thinking by the technicians prevented them from dropping the explosive, Conway wrote.

Conway said taping the explosives together was one of several mistakes made by Pantex officials that risked an explosion. Pantex officials also played down the risk, Conway said, calling the cracks in the explosive and the fact that workers taped it together a trivial change in procedures.

Jud Simmons, a spokesman for Pantex plant operator BWX Technologies Inc., did not return telephone messages on Friday.

The pit’s plutonium is surrounded by an explosive shell. When the explosives detonate, the plutonium is compressed and causes a nuclear explosion. In a thermonuclear weapon, that explosion sets off an even stronger nuclear blast.

Workers dismantling the pit in question found the explosive was cracked, which made it more unstable and easier to detonate, Conway wrote. Their solution was to tape together the cracked explosives and move them to another location.

In his letter, Conway said other problems included:

_Failing to consult the explosives’ manufacturer to determine how unstable the cracked explosives might be;

_Performing an incomplete and inadequate safety review before going ahead;

_Allowing workers to perform the taping and removal without practicing on a mock-up;

_Failing to have experts who had developed the procedure watch the taping and removal to try to spot any problems.

Conway’s letter does not elaborate on what might have happened had the explosive detonated.

The Nuclear Facilities Safety Board has an inspector stationed at the Pantex plant and at the nation’s other nuclear weapons sites. Weekly reports by the Pantex inspector, William White, show several problems with safety at the plant, including flaws in the software designed to control the movement of nuclear and explosive materials around the site.

White reported in October that Pantex technicians had made a mistake while dismantling a W62 warhead from a Minuteman missile. A drill damaged part of the warhead’s nuclear core, prompting officials to evacuate the facility until experts determined that no radiation had leaked, White wrote.