A Nun, a House Painter, and a Drifter Walk into a Nuclear Complex
It sounds like the start of an absurd joke, but last summer three peace activists broke into one of the most secure nuclear-weapons facilities in the U.S.
Read the full account of their story, and the serious breakdown of security at the nuclear facility, in The Washington Post.
Contractor at Hanford Nuclear Waste Project Admits Fraud →
A contractor at an already delayed and over-budget nuclear waste facility admitted to criminal time card fraud and agreed to pay $16.5 million in a settlement.Read more.
How many nukes does it take to be safe? →
From the Washington Post article
Twenty years from now, how many nuclear warheads on strategic submarines will the United States need? That’s not an abstract question. The country is engaged in a costly, ambitious modernization of its nuclear weapons complex and development of a new generation of delivery systems — new strategic submarines, bombers and intercontinental ballistic missiles that will be operating more than 50 years from now.
Start with the Navy’s plan for 12 new SSBN-X strategic submarines to replace the 14 Ohio-class subs now in service. A Congressional Research Service (CRS) report on the program, released Dec. 10, asks whether the Navy can stay within the cost targets for their procurement ($4.9 billion each) and whether each sub should carry 16 or 20 missiles.
But shouldn’t the questions be more basic, such as who is the enemy and how many subs would be needed to deter that enemy?
“With scarce funds in hand, the DOE decided to fund a related project, a multibillion-dollar Uranium Processing Facility in Tennessee. But oops! Officials recently had to acknowledge they have to redesign the building because it wouldn’t be big enough to hold the equipment that was supposed to go inside it.”
“We pay a king’s ransom for these things and … they have no military value.”
Is New Mexico's Los Alamos Lab Really Safe? →
Time interviews Peter Stockton, one of our senior investigators and an expert on nuclear safety.
