"Homeland" Security Update

Workers dismantling an aging nuclear weapon improperly secured broken pieces of a highly explosive component by taping them together, federal investigators found. An explosion could have occurred, they said.

The incident was among several recent safety lapses at the Energy Department's Pantex plant near Amarillo, Texas, noted by the independent Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. In another instance, workers taking apart an old warhead last fall accidentally drilled into the warhead's radioactive core, forcing evacuation of the facility.

In perhaps the grossest understatement to-date of the young millennium, Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board Chairman John Conway mused that the lapse increased the risk of a "violent reaction", from which could be reaped "potentially unacceptable consequences".

Anybody else picturing a groovy Family Circus cartoon just screaming to be drawn? In the background we see a looming mushroom cloud, while in the foreground, the mom admonishes the kids: "This is not acceptable! Who's responsible for this?" As, of course, the ubiquitous "not me" phantom beats a hasty retreat.

January 29, 2004 Update: Never let it be said that our President is not a man of action. Shortly after the above-noted, ah, deficiences were made public, we learn that the Bush Administration, in keeping with Dubya's promise to "act, whenever it is necessary, to protect the lives and the liberty of the American people," is now "looking at waiving some government safety standards at federal nuclear facilities if contractors don't like them -- after Congress directed it to start fining the contractors for violations."

All hail the great protector!

Posted by Eddie Tews at January 26, 2004 02:09 PM