Watchdog: Firm nearly detonated nuke bomb (1.2 megaton bomb near Amarillo)

Arizona Daily Star | Cox News Service ^ | 12/15/06 | Jeff Nesmith

[e_castillo]

I'm sure they were standing right there...

/sarcasm

[Sam Ketcham]

"The Pantex plant, 17 miles northeast of Amarillo," Using illegals was, in one way, a good idea. In another way, they should not be permitted to take apart war heads that can destroy an area more than say 10 miles away.

[mhx]

A nonprofit organization

talks to unidentified experts

gets an anonymous letter

the letter does not say that a nuclear explosion could have occurred

or what was being dismantled

yeah ok :-)

[SpaceBar]

It is hard to get a nuclear weapon to detonate properly in the first place. Precise machining of intricate yet bulky parts, the most exotic timing mechanisms, shaped explosive lenses, corroding parts, half lives measured in days etc. They are almost so complex that if one minor thing goes wrong you end up with a conventional explosion and lots of contamination but very localized.

[COEXERJ145]

Sadly most people don't know this. They think a nuke will go full yield just by hitting it with a hammer.

[rawcatslyentist]

>"You cannot detonate a nuclear weapon with a chain reaction explosion using any sort of mechanical force. You can blow it up with another nuke and it will not set off a nuclear explosion. You can burn it, you can blow it up, you can run over it with a train and it will not explode with other than he non-nuclear high explosive in the weapon."

Kinda like what happened to Illins little nuke. He's sooo ronereee!

The atmospheric tests indicated radiation, the seismic showed just a big non nuclear boom.

Even intentionally it takes pretty high tech to do it right!

[Vn_survivor_67-68]

Who is Peter DH Stockton really working for?

his patron, John Dingell,


fwiw, Dingell works for his arab/moozlime constituents in Dearborn, Michigan, and they reward him with reelection dependably every 2 years

[e_castillo]

Well, I'd miss the Big Texan, anyway...

HAHA!

I bet you would. Can you finish the free one?

[Enosh]

Exactly.

Not even worthy of the slightest sneer from the tower they envision themselves within.

[tlb]

Since when are nuclear warheads left laying around for thirty years ? I had understood all warheads every several years are disassembled and refurbished.

[texpat72]

My Dad worked there for 20 years. He COULD NOT say what he did at that plant. When I was in first grade, we were supposed to tell what our parents did for a living. I asked my Dad what he did, and he told me he swept floors. (He had to keep his work area clean.) I went to school and told them he was a janitor. He still laughs about that to this day, and I still don't know what he did there. He won't tell.

[spanalot]

i like that 150 pd demolition unit - got some big tree stumps that it would work real good on.

[Sloth]

If you cover it however with anything, like sand or your foot, it will explode and leave quite a large hole in the ground and spread pieces of you over a large piece of landscape.

Lt. George: "Oh, sir, just one thing. If we should happen to tread on a mine, what do we do?"

Capt. Blackadder: "Well, normal procedure, Lieutenant, is to jump 200 feet into the air and scatter yourself over a wide area."

[brothers4thID]

I don't know why, but that made me laugh out loud.

[MindBender26]

I used to report in that area. It's correct.

[MindBender26]

True of some warheads, not true of others.

Davy Crockett was an entirely mechanical system with no safeties other than what you would see on a conventional arty round.... and it was stored VERY near criticality.

It gave off so much heat that in Germany in the winter they were moved from bunker to bunker every few days because the hear would melt the snow off the bunker roof and thereby let the bad guys know where they were being stored!

[GladesGuru]

If the Davy Crockett rounds were that close to criticality, what was the radiation situation?

Any crews sprout extra arms?

[Publius6961]

a nonprofit organization... The Project on Government Oversight
I know these guys. They are an extreme left anti-military group that opposes all weapons (nuc and conventional) and all defense spending.

On general principle, I do not take seriously anything put out by any non-profit militant group.

What could possibly be of any use from a pack of welfare wannabes that can't find a real job?

Being created and funded by foreign powers is just icing on the doo-doo cake...

[Parody]

Bono: Oops! Well, there goes the urban sprawl problem...

[PAR35]

It sounds like a Union might be involved.