No Margin of Error with Nuclear Weapons

Eric Schlosser, better known for his book Fast Food Nation, has a new book out - Command and Control Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety.  One review called Schlosser's new book "Vivid and unsettling... An exhaustive, unnerving examination of the illusory safety of atomic arms."  And "unnerving" it should be.  Even since the publication of Schosser's book, we continue to hear of problems with nuclear weapons safety.

Much of the risk surrounding nuclear weapons comes down to human error, and as they say, "to err is human."  Whether in the design, production, maintenance or deployment of nuclear weapons, there are countless points at which human error can come into play. The bottom line is - with weapons that, if ever accidentally detonated, would have horrific consequences - there is little (if any) acceptable margin of error.

The following article in Global Security Newswire highlights the most recent failure of those charged with the stewardship of one-third of the nation's Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs).  The commander of Air Force Global Strike Command downplayed this most recent failure and "said that the number of problems at the nuclear wings has decreased since his command was established in 2009." Don't we all feel safer now???

P.S. - Eric Schlosser will be at the Central Seattle Public Library on October 1st to talk about his new book.  Click here for all the information.

Click here to read a recent (September 16th) interview with Schlosser by Global Security Newswire.

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In New Setback, Air Force Missile Team Fails Security Drill
Global Security Newswire, August 14, 2013

An Air Force unit that oversees one-third of America's land-based nuclear missiles failed a safety and security inspection, constituting the second serious Minuteman 3 mission readiness problem this year, the Associated Press reported on Tuesday.

Lt. General James M. Kowalski, commander of Air Force Global Strike Command -- an organization created in 2009 as part of a broad effort to alleviate problems in the service's nuclear mission -- told AP that a team of "relatively low-ranking" airmen stationed at Malmstrom Air Force Base, Mont., "did not demonstrate the right procedures" in a single exercise. The drill was part of a more expansive inspection that started last week and ended on Tuesday.

Technicians remove the upper section of an ICBM
at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana.
Missile personnel at the site have failed a
safety and security check that concluded
on Tuesday, a senior Air Force officer said
(AP Photo/U.S. Air Force).

A written statement posted on the command's website said the 341st Missile Wing received an unsatisfactory rating after making "tactical level errors -- not related to command and control of nuclear weapons -- during one of several exercises conducted during the inspection. This failure resulted in the entire inspection being rated 'unsatisfactory.'"

The wing is one of three that control 450 Minuteman 3 ICBMs, according to AP.

The Air Force is "looking into" the possibility of disciplinary action against the 341st, Kowalski told the wire service. He noted, though, that the wing did well overall, scoring excellent or outstanding in most of the 13 areas being tested.

In March, the deputy commander of the 91st Missile Wing -- stationed at Minot Air Force Base, N.D. -- complained of "rot" in the group after an inspection gave its missile crews the equivalent of a "D" grade on Minuteman 3 launch operations, according to AP. Although the 91st passed that inspection, the failed simulation of ICBM launch operations resulted in the temporary removal and retraining of 19 personnel.

In 2008, the 5th Bomb Wing at Minot failed the nuclear security component of an inspection.

Eric Fanning, acting secretary of the Air Force, will travel to Barksdale Air Force Base, La., on Wednesday to meet with Kowalski and discuss specifics of the Malmstrom case, as well as aspects of the overall nuclear mission, top Air Force spokesman Brig. Gen. Les Kodlick told AP. The trip was planned prior to the latest incident.

The Air Force nuclear mission has hit a number of bumps since 2008, including a B-52 bomber flight over several U.S. states during which the crew was unaware that actual weapons were onboard.

In an interview on Tuesday, Kowalski said that the number of problems at the nuclear wings has decreased since his command was established in 2009, AP reported. The occasional failures do not point to a wide-reaching failure to follow safety and security protocols, the general asserted.

Source URL: http://www.nti.org/gsn/article/safety-and-security-inspection-failed-air-force-nuclear-unit/

Drinking and Driving (NUKES) Don't Mix!

Friends,

In a previous post (Nuclear 18 Wheelers; Yee Haw!!! , Sept. 6, 2009) I wrote about the government's "Safeguards Transporters", those big rigs that travel the nation's highways and byways, delivering nukes to naval and air force bases, and who knows where else.

As an Occupational and Environmental Health professional I spent a great deal of time dealing with risk assessment and risk management. Bottom line: Everything entails some level of risk, no matter how small. Of course we have to look at not only the probability that something might happen (accident), but what would be the severity of the outcome(s).

We all know that the outcomes from messing around with (let alone using) nuclear weapons are not pretty. Whether it be an accident involving the handling or a warhead, or losing track of one, we're dealing with potentially serious outcomes. Of course we should expect that the folks transporting nuclear weapons are the best of the best, right???

Think again!!! Read the beginning of the November 22, 2010 Associated Press article, Report: Nuclear weapon drivers sometimes got drunk.

Federal agents hired to transport nuclear weapons and components sometimes got drunk while on convoy missions, a government watchdog said Monday. In an incident last year, police detained two agents who went to a bar during an assignment.

The Energy Department's assistant inspector general, Sandra D. Bruce, said her office reviewed 16 alcohol-related incidents involving agents, candidate-agents and others from the government's Office of Secure Transportation between 2007 through 2009. Nearly 600 federal agents ship nuclear weapons, weapon components and special nuclear material across the U.S.

Two incidents in particular raised red flags, the report said, because they happened during secure transportation missions while agents checked into local hotels while on extended missions. In these cases, the vehicles were placed in "safe harbor," meaning they were moved to secure locations.

In one case, in 2007, an agent was arrested for public intoxication. The other occurred last year, when police handcuffed and temporarily detained two agents after an incident at a bar.

"Alcohol incidents such as these, as infrequent as they may be, indicate a potential
vulnerability in OST's critical national security mission," the report warns.

So much for the government's Office of [IN]Secure Transportation!!!
You can read the whole report yourself, but when taken along with other documented incidents in the overall care and handling of nuclear weapons - whether it be loading nuclear armed Cruise missiles on a bomber by "mistake", putting a ladder through a Trident missile nose cone or transporting nuclear weapons while drunk - it should make us ask the question, "Is all this worth the risk for weapons that can never be used unless we want to commit mass murder (or omnicide)?"

National Nuclear Security Administration spokesman Damien LaVera responded to the report: "NNSA's Office of Secure Transportation maintains a highly trained, highly professional force that has safely and securely transported nuclear materials more than 100 million miles without a single fatal accident or any release of radiation."

That should give us all great comfort, right? Wrong. It only takes one accident, and there is no such thing as absolute safety. And in this case the stakes are too high. It's just a matter of time. And speaking of time, it is most definitely time for our government to take its disarmament responsibility seriously.

Peace,

Leonard

P.S. - The Office of Secure Transportation is currently accepting applications (according to their Website. I certainly hope they are tightening up their hiring practices.

Also - A related (and well researched) article in the Kitsap Sun, Navy's Trident Nuclear Warheads Hit the Highway, Bound for Texas, from November 27, 2010.

Nuclear 18 Wheelers; Yee Haw!!!

Friends,

Photos of 18 wheelers don't usually get me all excited, but last week Friends of the Earth announced that it has used the Freedom of Information Act to force the U.S. Department of Energy to release color photos of the special trucks that transport nuclear weapons, nuclear weapons components and “special nuclear material” such as plutonium and highly enriched uranium. Well doggone it - I've seen the photos, and those are some of the nicest big rigs I've seen on the road in a loooong time. We're talkin long haul truckin folks; check out that bulletproof sleeper cab. And they are coming soon to a military installation near you (and definitely near me).

Photo "courtesy" of the National Nuclear Safety Administration (NNSA). Thanks to Friends of the Earth for getting us such nice photos of those nuclear big rigs.

About 20 miles as the gull flies from Seattle, Washington is Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor, home port of some really BIG Trident nuclear submarines, and storage depot for much of the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile; the 2,364 weapons reportedly assigned to Bangor are warheads for the Trident and cruise missiles carried by the submarines based there (according to The Seattle Times in 2006).

The government used to bring nuclear weapons to Bangor on the infamous White Trains, which were greeted by many nuclear resisters during the 1980s, and finally gave up on this mode of transport. Now with trucks moving nuclear materials, it's much harder to know where they are. It was much easier in the good old days when you had trains (they might as well have had a bulls eye painted on them) that were limited to a set of tracks where people could watch them along the way and pass word ahead.

Well, for all you nuke spotters out there, we at least have some photos of the "Safeguards Transporters" courtesy of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). They are mighty pretty looking rigs, and I'm sure they are built for the job. One sure fire way to spot one is to look for the really clean rig (that doesn't say "My Other Woman" on the door - I once knew a truck driver with that written on his truck) that doesn't have the pedal to the metal doing 70 (or more) mph. According to the government's guidelines, the convoys are supposed to keep it below 65 mph, which is pretty rare on our stretch of Interstate. Time is money for truckers!

3 safeguards transporters and their escorts leaving the Charleston (SC) Naval Weapons Station with plutonium fuel (MOX) that had been shipped over from France. Photo by T. Clements, 2005.

I know that some folks are already getting worried that those pesky terrorists lurking at every truck stop and highway rest area are salivating at these newly released photos. Well, these "safeguards transporters" are pretty generic on the outside, and there were a couple of previous photos posted on the internet of earlier generation safeguards transporters (google "safeguards transporters"). So there is nothing all that new here, and with all the passive and active features to hamper any would-be thieves coupled with some pretty heavily armed escorts, I'm sure there isn't much to worry about. What we should be worried about is the U.S. government coming up with nifty new ways to extend the life of weapons that we should be looking to retire in the not-so-distant future.

With the Stockpile Stewardship and Life Extension Programs on track once again (maybe yes, maybe no) refurbishing W76 warheads (they finally remembered how to make them), residents of Washington State might be seeing these warhead delivery vehicles, aka safeguards transporters, making their way to Bangor with refurbished W76 warheads some time soon. Watch for them (accompanied by some pretty gnarly security convoys) coming up from the Pantex plant near Amarillo, Texas on an interstate near you.

Peace,

Leonard

P.S. - Check out the "Quick Poll" at the Huffington Post: Do the release of nuclear bomb truck photos make you feel safer?

Read the fact sheet from the Office of Secure Transportation, NNSA.

Read Navy Never Received Refurbished W-76 Warhead, Global Security Newswire, Friday, May 29, 2009.