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Thread #21: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1268023/posts |
Posted on 10/12/2004 8:58:00 PM PDT by nwctwx
I'm not an expert but have been involved in several pipeline fabrication projects.
Whenever you weld on an ASME coded vessel (American Society of Mechanical Engineers) then you are required to either perform a hydrostatic test of 150% of operating pressure or x-ray the weld. Same with piping systems, dependent upon the pressure and the fluid contained within the piping. You can either perform a hydrostatic test, or x-ray 10% of the welds. In some cases, such as high pressure oxygen lines, greater than 1000 psig, you would x-ray 100% of the welds.
Needless to say, if this was an x-ray source that ended up in the dump, it will be very embarrasing for the contractor and I would assume one or more people will be fired. Maybe even face civil or criminal liability charges.
Osama Hunters
http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20041019&fname=raman&sid=1
(Just an interesting article)
Via Drudge
Blueprints for terrorists?
Sensitive nuclear info ends up on NRC Web site
From Mike M. Ahlers
CNN Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- When David Lochbaum perused a government Web site one day last summer, he came across documents he thought would be of limited value to the public -- but a potential bonanza for terrorists.
Included in a Nuclear Regulatory Commission report on Waterford III Nuclear Power Station near New Orleans, Louisiana, were diagrams showing all the toxic chemicals and pipelines near Waterford III -- including the natural gas pipelines that lace through the complex.
Explicit in detail, the maps even showed gas line valves, the amount of pressure in the lines, and the proximity of gas lines to air intakes for the nuclear plant's control room.
Lochbaum, nuclear safety engineer for the Union of Concerned Scientists, a watchdog group, said he did what he always does when he finds sensitive documents on the NRC's Web site: He called the NRC's nuclear safety managers and suggested they remove the diagram. They did.
Lochbaum isn't alone in finding sensitive material on the NRC Web site. In a four-hour time span recently, Scott Portzline, a Pennsylvania piano tuner and civic activist, found material about four university nuclear laboratories, including floor plans and lists of the radioactive materials they use.
The four schools were Norwich University in Northfield, Vermont; Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston; Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota; and the University of Florida in Gainesville.
Portzline said the floor plans would be valuable to terrorists, allowing them to hunt for potential sources of nuclear material from the relative obscurity of their computers, without taking the riskier step of conducting surveillance.
Using the NRC Web site, a terrorist "could prioritize the largest sources, more dangerous sources or the weapons grade sources" of radioactive material, Portzline said. "You'd know exactly where the sources are, having never visited the facility."
The NRC said Tuesday it is trying to balance the public's right to know with the need for security, and that information is sometimes put on the Web site that, upon review, doesn't belong there.
After the Harrisburg (Pennsylvania) Patriot-News reported Portzline's find on October 3, the NRC began reviewing the material. A CNN check last week showed the material was still on the Web site, but the NRC said Tuesday it has since removed the material, saying it was prudent to do so.
Roy Zimmerman, director of the NRC's Office of Nuclear Security and Incident Response, said the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks highlighted the need to safeguard sensitive information, a process that has taken several steps. In the days immediately after the attacks, the NRC took the Web site entirely off line. When it was restored weeks later, it had been purged of more than 1,000 sensitive documents, he said.
Initially, the agency decided to withhold documents if "the release would provide clear and significant benefit to a terrorist in planning an attack," Zimmerman said.
In early summer, the agency tightened the restriction, opting to exclude information "that could be useful or could reasonably be useful to a terrorist," he said. "It is currently unlikely that the information on our Web site would provide significant advantage to assist a terrorist."
'Next tier' information
The information that Portzline found represents a "next tier" of information that deserves review, he said.
An NRC spokesman told CNN Tuesday the agency is considering establishing a task force to address the Web site issue.
Experts asked by CNN to review the Portzline material agreed it doesn't belong on public Web sites, but said that doesn't necessarily mean the material is of value to terrorists.
One expert likened it to a bank, saying customers may know the location of the vault, but still don't have the wherewithal to empty it.
"It [the Web site] may help a little, but if someone's determined to do this, it won't help them much. If someone wanted to find this out, they can," said David Albright of the Institute for Science and International Security.
"If secrecy is your only security, then you don't have it. Because everybody that has a brain knows that physics departments use radioactive sources ... and it's not that hard to find where they are," he said.
Lochbaum, who discovered the Waterford power plant maps last summer, said so far this year, he has notified the NRC of six documents he believed should not have been posted; the agency removed four of them.
One document that was removed was an instruction manual for metal and explosive detectors used at Waterford nuclear plant entrances, he said.
"If you were trying to defeat those detectors, having that kind of information would be usable," he said.
"The problem is the NRC is in the habit of trying to close the barn door after the horse is out," said Jim Riccio, nuclear policy analyst for the environmental group Greenpeace.
"Every one of these reactors is a pre-positioned weapon of mass destruction that could be used to hurt this country," he said, adding that sensitive material should be caught before it is posted -- not afterwards.
The NRC's Zimmerman said, "We are appreciative of the public bringing these particular documents to our attention. Our plan, though, is to get out in front of this."
He said the NRC is training licensees to highlight sensitive material when they submit it.
Said Lochbaum, "I'm ... not blaming the NRC for the occasional document that gets out. They handle thousands of documents a year. So even if you're 99.9 percent [efficient at editing documents] an occasional document gets out. I think that's something we have to live with.
"I think everybody's doing their best under the situation."
Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/10/19/terror.nrc/index.html
Bomb Scare Near Pioneer Valley Hospital (Utah)
http://kutv.com/topstories/local_story_293193403.html
bookmahk
Bomb Threat Forced Several People to Evacuate From Their Building (Kentucky)
http://www.wkyt.com/Global/story.asp?S=2452629
Ha ha. You always make me smile.
Industrial radiography is used in construction among other fields.
cool, I have a son that attends Idaho State University in Pokey :) Soon it will be time to visit him and do a little skiing at Pomerelle.
Thank you for your explanation.
Will be checking for any updates.
I'd say that Portzline piano tuner fella is pretty...sharp.
Thanks, I'm feeling better about this. I knew TMers would know.
It talked about how China would greatly benefit from handing usama over by receiving multiple economic and other benefits as a most favored nation here (they already have mfn status though).
I laughed while reading it especially since the source is completely unknown to me. Then, I read an article today on how U.S. companies will be allowed to export several nuke reactors to China.
So, the thought crossed my mind whether there is any truth at all on usama being in China against his will right now...
Nahhhh. Probably not.
I saw it yesterday too.
There was another article that I saw today where China denied knowing the whereabouts of Osama. Might have been googling news when I saw it.
The bigger question is export of nuke reactors. You'd a thunk we'd learned our lesson on that one.
He is sharp!
BTW, I thought our sensitive site information on the internet was Mr. Cleaned after 911. Yeesh.
Well, this takes the cake. Another article about a different airline incident than the 14 musicians, but the same outcome -- this is another incident that happened in June.
It was made light of in the end by those who should have pursued these guys. Maybe there's been followup that they don't want us to know about, but this is a bit much. Written by the same woman who witnessed the other incident, she was told about this incident by airline employees.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
What Happened on United Airlines Flight 925? (Terrorists case flight)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1250133/posts
... Then, just minutes before the aircraft doors were set to close, ground agents hurried down the jet way with a group of late arrivals.
According to the ground agents, the nine men had arrived independently on separate itineraries from various Middle Eastern countries. The flight crew was told that one man came from Lahore, Pakistan, another from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, another from Afghanistan. Several of the men had no carry-ons, which one of the flight attendants found unusual. Most passengers embarking on a long, international flight carry at least something with them. The flight attendant took the ground agent aside and said, "something's not right."
The ground agent told the flight attendant she was being paranoid. The men, purportedly all Pakistani nationals, had been through secondary screening and had been swabbed for explosives. A heated discussion between the United Airlines ground agent and the flight attendant took place. The flight attendant inquired about what, if any, additional security measures could be taken; the ground agent pressed for an on-time departure. No additional security checks were made and the flight left on time.
~~~~~~~~~~
Much more at link for original article here:
http://www.womenswallstreet.com/WWS/article_landing.aspx?titleid=76&articleid=791
I hope this isn't a repeat post, but I've checked way back in the TM and haven't spotted it yet.
There was an astonishing amount of weird behavior on the flight, which is detailed at the original link.
My oldest son attends ISU in Pokey. My wife will be taking EMT recertification classes starting in December. If she feels a bit more frisky, she might just follow up with the paramedic program. ISU is a 5 mile drive from my house.
A little more from the original link to the UAL flight story:
The flight attendants now began closely monitoring what the men were doing. One of the men carried a hand-held mirror as he walked around the plane. According to one flight attendant, the man "was holding [the mirror] and moving it around so he could see what was going on behind him. What he was doing was very suspicious."
Another flight attendant noted that the men had electronic gadgets with them. "They were not Game Boys or computers," said the veteran crew member, "but small electronic devices. I didn't recognize what they were." Other flight attendants took notice of the electronic equipment as well -- some of which was being passed among the men. "They started passing this one electronic device back and forth," said another flight attendant. "It looked like a transistor radio, only it wasn't."
KIRKSVILLE, Mo. (AP) — The Federal Aviation Administration says a commuter jet has crashed in northeastern Missouri, killing at least five people.
Notice the American Airlines Flight Number
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