Oops!!
Posted on 12/16/2006 7:11:23 PM PST by LibWhacker
WASHINGTON — An accident that occurred as a decades-old nuclear warhead was being dismantled at the government's Pantex facility near Amarillo, Texas, could have caused the device to detonate, a nonprofit organization charged Thursday.
The Project on Government Oversight said the "near miss" event, which led the Energy Department to fine the plant's operator $110,000, was due partly to requirements that technicians at the plant work up to 72 hours per week.
The Pantex plant, 17 miles northeast of Amarillo, is the country's only factory for assembly and disassembly of nuclear weapons.
The organization said it was told by unidentified experts who were "knowledgeable about this event" that the accident, in which an unsafe amount of pressure was applied to the warhead, could have caused the device to detonate.
The oversight project also released an anonymous letter, purportedly sent by Pantex employees, warning that long hours and efforts to increase output were causing dangerous conditions in the plant.
In a two-paragraph statement, BWX Technologies, the company that operates the Amarillo facility under a contract with the Energy Department, said it "takes seriously any employee concerns about safe operations" and was comparing statements in the anonymous letter "with the reality of day-to-day work."
BWX spokeswoman Erin Ritter declined to comment beyond the statement.
Julianne Smith, a spokeswoman for the Energy Department, which owns the Pantex plant, declined to respond to safety complaints outlined in a letter from oversight project Executive Director Danielle Brian to Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman.
However, records show that the department last month fined BWX $110,000 for the accident and another event involving the same warhead.
In a letter to Dan J. Swaim, BWX general manger of the plant, the Energy Department said the company had "significantly delayed" disclosing the incidents and then submitted a "factually inaccurate and incomplete" report.
The letter, signed by Linton Brooks, head of the National Nuclear Security Administration, did not say the incidents could have caused a nuclear detonation or what kind of warhead was being dismantled when they occurred.
It said that during three separate unsuccessful attempts to dismantle the warhead in March and April of last year, workers applied too much pressure to the device and a safety mechanism failed to work.
Oversight project investigator Peter Stockton, a former Energy Department official, said the device was a W56 warhead, with a yield of 1,200 kilotons, 100 times the destructive power of the Hiroshima bomb.
See, we could be decomissioning them over Iran? What a waste!
Well, I'd miss the Big Texan, anyway...
Use the "Fabulous Blaster" on a nuke? Maybe Kroil would be a better choice.
I suppose one could make the case that this is the worlds biggest handgrenade.
I actually learned that line as "Close only counts in horseshoes, hand grenades, and hydrogen bombs. :)
righty tighty, lefty loosey
righty tighty, lefty loosey....
Hearsay twice removed from 'experts' of unknown quality, who weren't there at the time. Yeah, I'm going to get really worried about that. (not)
Stockton was a former Democratic staff member of the House Energy and Power subcommittee, and later a "special assistant" to Clinton's energy secretary, Bill Richardson. He's been with POGO (which is funded by shadows from somewhere) since the end of that gig.
His full name is Peter D. H. Stockton. He does not appear to have ever held an actual job outside of the Washington bullshit-industrial complex. He does not appear to have served in the military -- not ours, anyway.
While POGO claims to be "non-partisan," that's only because it's too far left for the Dems to claim it. Stockton, for example, has had a long and public feud with Al Gore.
Stockton has written literally dozens of papers and documents criticizing US nuclear weapons and US nuclear policy. I cannot find a word he has said against Russian (or for that matter Korean, Iranian, Pakistani) nukes. In Stockton's world, those are the good guys and we are the bad guys.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
Still won't go nuc, the HE has to be properly timed and sequenced for that.
I thought the name was familar so I googled and this is the same company responsbile for for contamination of the Ogallala Aquifer where it runs through the Texas Panhandle.
This one?
The second event, although it produced only one fatality, became more infamous because of the way the disaster occurred and the incredible damage inflicted on launcher 374-7 near Damascus. An unfortunate sequence of events began on September 18, 1980, with an incorrect maintenance procedure to add pressure to the second stage oxidizing tank. During an incorrect application of a 9-pound wrench socket to the pressure cap, the maintenance man accidentally dropped the socket, which fell onto the first stage and punctured the first stage fuel tank.
The fuel, unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine, is hypergolic, meaning contact with the oxidizing agent creates instant ignition. Eventually, the crew evacuated the launch control center as military and civilian response teams arrived to tackle the hazardous situation. Early in the morning of September 19, a two-man investigation team entered the silo. Because their vapor detectors indicated an explosive atmosphere, the two were ordered to evacuate.
At about 0300 hours, a tremendous explosion rocked the area. The initial explosion catapulted the 740-ton closure door away from the silo and ejected the second stage and its warhead out of the silo. Once clear of the silo, the second stage exploded. Twenty-one personnel in the immediate vicinity of the blast were injured. One member of the two-man silo reconnaissance team who had just emerged from the portal sustained injuries that proved fatal.
At daybreak, the Air Force retrieved the warhead and brought it within the confines of Little Rock AFB. During the recovery the Missile Wing Commander received strong support from other military units as well as Federal, state, and local officials. Arkansas's young governor, Bill Clinton, played an important role in overseeing the proper deployment of state emergency resources.
Something that the Project for Government Oversight, a "non-profit organization" as the reporter carefully notes, was ignorant of.
But, then, what the hell would a bunch of lawyers know about nuclear physics...???
Stockton has been caught selling out the nation before, according to the New York Times... his patron, John Dingell, retained him in the committee staff anyway.
He took $5,000 from TV producers in 1980 for inside information. You need TimesSelect to read the whole article, which dates from 1982.
http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60717F6385C0C778CDDA80894DA484D81&showabstract=1
Longer blurb here, no times select needed:
http://72.14.205.104/search?q=cache:uRZRqexKUgUJ:topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/u/united_states_politics_and_government/index.html%3Foffset%3D20%26s%3Doldest%26query%3DTELEVISION%26field%3Ddes%26match%3Dexact+%22Peter+D.+H.+Stockton%22&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=27&client=firefox-a
Most often he is just cited by calling him a nuclear or security expert. But he has no expertise or training in military, security, nuclear, or weapons matters that I can see.
One very interesting thing came up. In the Clinton years, he pressed to have the guards at nuc sites removed from contractor control and put directly under DOE... where he'd have had access to all the information about how they deploy and work.
Who is Peter DH Stockton really working for?
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
In light of difficulties with stuck threads on the W56 warhead radiation case, the staff reviewed the W56 WSS for historical data that could provide insight on this problem. This review was augmented by observations of the staff and the Board?s outside expert of interactions between the W56 Project Team and Y-12 staff with expertise in bimetallic joints. The surveillance history summary ...Hmmm ... anybody well-practiced in front-end (tie-rod ends, idler arms or ball joints) component or steel spark-plug use in aluminum engine blocks (w/o the proper use of anti-seize compound) should be able to 'help' with this ...
The The Project On Government Oversight appears to be composed of a bunch of lefty professors/journalists/bureaucrats/attorneys -- a veritable witch's brew united by an anti-military agenda.
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