The Dangerous Work Of Babysitting Bombs by SciFri

The U.S. currently has more than 4,000 nuclear warheads in its arsenal. And while it’s unlikely that we’ll need to use those bombs any time soon, they must still be checked and maintained regularly, just in case. That job is done at facilities like Los Alamos National Laboratory, where technicians handle the radioactive plutonium “pits” that serve as fuel for these bomb.

In August 2011, technicians at Los Alamos National Laboratory gathered eight plutonium rods and positioned them side-by-side on a table for a photograph. In doing so, they overlooked the fact that unstable radioactive plutonium can spark a nuclear chain reaction when too much is put in one place. The rods were separated before a burst of radiation could be triggered, but the incident represented gross negligence at one of the country’s most dangerous weapons facilities.

A subsequent investigation by the Center for Public Integrity revealed that several critical safety incidents have halted work at Los Alamos and put scientists and researchers in contact with radioactive materials. And penalties imposed by the government on the private contractors that make America’s nuclear weapons have done little to reduce the rate of these safety breaches.

Jeffrey Smith, managing editor for national security at the Center for Public Integrity, joins Ira to discuss what the Center’s investigation uncovered. Plus, David Overskei, a private contractor who has consulted with the government on nuclear weapons, offers his take on how the U.S. can safely maintain its stockpile.

We invited Los Alamos National Laboratory to appear on the program. They declined and instead sent the following statements in response to the Center’s investigation:

With regard to the story playing up the risk that the “rods” could have gone critical, which included a photo (and continues to be a point that keeps being pushed in appearances and videos), “It is simply not true. In fact, the conditions did not exist to support a critical chain reaction. Factors such as amount and shape, among others, made that a virtual impossibility.”

With regard to the assertion that the lab has an insufficient number of criticality safety experts at 10: “Not accurate. In fact, the current authorized level is actually 25 and that is being met on site with 20 full-time employees and 5 subcontractors—until 5 full-time employees are hired. In addition, the lab was recently authorized to raise staffing levels to 27 and have plans to do so.”