Posted on 08/16/2008 4:10:14 PM PDT by SmithL
Beyond that, the government isn't saying much.
The incident at the Y-12 National Security Complex was revealed in a June 20 report by staff of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board.
The timing was about a month after the Oak Ridge plant received approval to restart production work on W76 warheads, which had been delayed for more than a year because of technical issues.
However, Steven Wyatt of the National Nuclear Security Administration said he could not comment on whether the oven-dried weapon parts were associated with the plant's W76 life-extension program, which is refurbishing old warheads deployed on Trident submarine missiles.
The safety board's report said the components - known as canned subassemblies - were mistakenly dried at a "much higher temperature" than intended.
Asked if they were damaged by the process, Wyatt responded by e-mail, "The parts were not prepared in accordance with the original application and could not be used as intended."
Wyatt said the parts were deemed acceptable for an "alternate use" but said they had to be rebuilt. He would not disclose the future use or say if it was a weapons mission.
"That information is not releasable," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at knoxnews.com ...
Why is this something the general public needs to know about?
Great! Just great! Tell the russians and Lil Kim and the iranians. Great! STFU
Oooooooooooooooooo lovely
I’m just “85 miles from Boom Boom”
(THanks Cohan)
Because the lesson to be learned is that you don't mothball something this complex and critical, then expect to be able to press a button and start it up in a smooth-running, error-free state. This is pro'ly a see-I-told-you-so story plant.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
I was wondering why I shone green in the dark...
Workers overcook nuclear warheads at Y-12
Allies Ask Obama to Make ‘Hope’ More Specific
Gold and silver. Who will win the bronze for the Headline of the Day competition?
This is just pretty close to being deliberate sabotage.
The “overcooking”, what is that? Somebody just being stupid, or a planned attempt to damage the workings of existing technology?
Atomic weaponry does not stay inert in storage, you know. Over time, the (comparatively) slow release of radioactivity negatively affects the viability of the internal operating mechanisms of the devices, requiring the removal and replacement of certain of the components from time to time.
The casings become “hot” through secondary radiation, which changes their characteristics, making the devices much “dirtier” than they would ordinarily be.
The same reason that "The China Syndrome" is being regularly re-run on TV lately. Nuclear energy just might be given a serious second look in the face of our energy woes and there are those who would have no part in it. "Nuclear" is the bogeyman and anything related that can be remotely portrayed as calamitous will be headlined. That this story is about weaponry and not energy means nothing...it's NUCLEAR!
Oh, I just Love to see Oak Ridge in the Morning Newspaper...
Nice place to live, great schools,
Lovely TVA lakes, clean city
Damn Fool thing to do
This comes under the heading of
Heads will Roll
Not
The Public has a right to know
Some component in that assembly probably undergoes a phase or microstructure change above a certain temperature and then is no longer in spec with the design. Such is my guess anyway.
Regardless, from the article it was a human screw-up. The proper paperwork did not get filled out and procedures were not followed.
I have no doubt someone got their butt handed to them over this.
"Never trust an oven."
They didn’t have Chinese nationals running the ovens, I hope.
Of course, the title is quite misleading. They only overcooked some sensitive parts that didn’t appear to be inside the warheads at the time.
What’s the alternate use for a nuke?
Hope they sell it to some hippies as a lava lamp and they take it back to the commune.
Ping.
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