Slashdot Mirror
US Forgets How To Make Trident Missiles
Hugh Pickens writes "The US and the UK are trying to refurbish the aging W76 warheads that tip Trident missiles to prolong their life and ensure they are safe and reliable but plans have been put on hold because US scientists have forgotten how to manufacture a mysterious but very hazardous component of the warhead codenamed Fogbank. 'NNSA had lost knowledge of how to manufacture the material because it had kept few records of the process when the material was made in the 1980s, and almost all staff with expertise on production had retired or left the agency,' says the report by a US congressional committee. Fogbank is thought by some weapons experts to be a foam used between the fission and fusion stages of the thermonuclear bomb on the Trident Missile and US officials say that manufacturing Fogbank requires a solvent cleaning agent which is 'extremely flammable' and 'explosive,' and that the process involves dealing with 'toxic materials' hazardous to workers. 'This is like James Bond destroying his instructions as soon as he has read them,' says John Ainslie, the co-ordinator of the Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, adding that 'perhaps the plans for making Fogbank were so secret that no copies were kept.' Thomas D'Agostino, administrator or the US National Nuclear Security Administration, told a congressional committee that the administration was spending 'a lot of money' trying to make 'Fogbank' at Y-12, but 'we're not out of the woods yet.'"
GOOD! We do not need nuclear weapons! They are probably the saddest thing mankind has ever invented.
The best thing to do in the event of a nuclear attack:
"Ladies and gentlemen, we've recently learned that [country] has expanded its nuclear program. We've decided to help them by delivering some examples of nuclear technology - at no charge, and shipped express.
"We're also working with Rand-McNally to update their product line for the new year."
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ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
What you call barbarism I call self-defense. You don't respond to a terrorist attack by filing a lawsuit -- you respond by killing and/or imprisoning those responsible.
And killing 100 times as many innocent bystanders in the process -- that's ok how?
No one has a right to their *own* opinion. They have a right to the TRUTH.
You think the US is the only country that would respond in kind? Newsflash: Both the British and the French have reserved the right to respond to terror attacks with nuclear weapons. I suspect the Russians or Chinese would do so as well.
Newsflash: we British don't have any nuclear weapons of our own. Instead our taxpayers fund very expensive submarines full of rented US missiles to which the US government holds the key. We can't even fire them without permission.
I'm old enough to remember when discussions on Slashdot were well informed.
No, you should have negotiated more. Make a few small concessions - allowing the emperor to remain in power, perhaps.
Bullshit. There's no reason to negotiate with a power that started an unprovoked war against your country when you have that power on the ropes. It also would have been a violation of our wartime agreements with the British and Chinese to not seek a separate peace or anything less than an unconditional surrender.
only said at all because your nation never had its civilian towns bombed.
My nation has never started wars of aggression.
the deliberate bombing of civilian populations that was done towards the end of the war
The London Blitz was towards the end of the war? The bombing of Warsaw occurred at the end of the war? Shanghai? Belgrade? Rotterdam?
and should not be repeated
I disagree. It should be repeated. The reason we had a peaceful occupation of Germany is because the German population was utterly and completely demoralized and defeated. When you start a war you should expect to pay the consequences.
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.