Safety regulations, Politics and Nuclear production

[1oldman2]

Just wondering how much of this is political posturing and how much is hard science.
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017...lay-us-nuclear-warhead-testing-and-production

 

[mathman]

Since many workers were exposed to unsafe radiation levels and some ingested Uranium, it looks like hard science to me.

 

[gleem]

I do not understand the use of the term "political posturing". for what purpose?. The safety issues brought up in the article are very real. Most if not nuclear accidents have been caused by the lack of appreciation for the factors that result in a criticality incident i.e., a release of a burst of radiation and in particular neutrons when too much fissionable material is accumulated in a given location. The fact that a room was found to contain a cache of Plutonium the form an quantity of which was at best sketchy was criminal in my opinion. The use of bonuses to meet quotas is stupid in a situation where attention to detail and procedure is so very important and where you want to make sure no short cuts are taken.

 

[1oldman2]

I do not understand the use of the term "political posturing". for what purpose?.

I should know better than to use the word "political" in a thread, (especially an opening post) my apologies for that misdirection. What I had in mind at the time I wrote that was, the Politics of personal power and wealth vs. Safety ("McMillan, a nuclear physicist and weapons designer with government-funded compensation exceeding a million dollars a year, responded that he had believed the problems could be solved while that lab kept operating. He was "reluctant" to shut it down, Miller recalled. But as the call proceeded, he became open to her view that the risks were too high, she added. So on McMillan’s order, the facility was shut within a day, with little public notice.") This was not a reference to any particular administrations plans to modernize or upgrade Nuclear Weapons on my part.
I did find the entire five part series and related links very interesting, I don't recall ever seeing so much information on LANL, https://energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2014/12/f19/Keilers- LANL PF-4 Seismic Safety.pdf was particularly interesting from a Seismic hazard perspective.
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017...aboratory-takes-hidden-toll-america-s-arsenal
https://apps.publicintegrity.org/nuclear-negligence/
https://apps.publicintegrity.org/nuclear-negligence/about-the-series/

The safety issues brought up in the article are very real. Most if not nuclear accidents have been caused by the lack of appreciation for the factors that result in a criticality incident i.e., a release of a burst of radiation and in particular neutrons when too much fissionable material is accumulated in a given location. The fact that a room was found to contain a cache of Plutonium the form an quantity of which was at best sketchy was criminal in my opinion.

I agree with your opinion completely, I'm surprised this story ever saw the light of day.

The use of bonuses to meet quotas is stupid in a situation where attention to detail and procedure is so very important and where you want to make sure no short cuts are taken.

A recipe for disaster, guaranteed.