Slashdot Mirror
82-Year-Old Nun Breaks Into Nuclear Facility, Contractors Blamed
Lasrick writes "Private security contractors strike again, this time at the Y-12 National Security Complex. A nun, a gardener, and a housepainter cut through three security fences to find themselves 20 feet away from highly dangerous nuclear material. And of course, only one guard has been fired (the one who arguably acted the bravest and did the right thing). A Department of Energy report (PDF) on the incident found 'troubling displays of ineptitude in responding to alarms, failures to maintain critical 2
security equipment, over reliance on compensatory measures, misunderstanding of security protocols, poor communications, and weaknesses in contract and resource management.' The contractors have been put on notice, (PDF), but they still have the contracts."
Are you implying that if the security were nationalized (ala TSA) that such ineptitude would not exist?
Why the explicit blame on "private security contractors"? Why not fire any private company who is not doing their job and find one that can/will?
Sounds like the start of a joke, "A nun, a gardener, and a house painter go into a nuclear facility..."
I read 'over reliance on compensatory measures' as needing their paychecks too badly... Now if you'll excuse me, I have bills to pay.
I'm waiting for a "-1 somepeoplejustshouldn'tgetmodprivileges" meta-moderation.
I'm totally picturing this happening like it's an episode of the Simpsons in my head.
Why in the name of Oppenheimer did they fire the one guy who actually did his job, when everyone above and around him appeared to fail pretty seriously at theirs?
Admittedly, he didn't shoot anyone, which he was apparently entitled to do, but at the same time, he actually stopped any further mischief and was the only person (aside from the protesters) who didn't embarrass the whole nation.
It's a pity Joseph Heller isn't around to write his life story or something.
"My God...it's full of trolls!"
is that the guard who encountered the intruders was fired.
There will be a small flap, and exchange of letters, self-righteous speeches, and it will be back to bidness as usual, which is to say what comes out of this will be slip-shod, ineffective, pretty on paper, and a few highers will make more money.
I blame Apple maps.
I know, dead horse is dead.
Not quite, it's more
A nun, a gardener and a house painter walk into a nuclear reactor.
I don't remember the joke, but the end goes something like: "and the nun said: 'it was huge and glowing!'"
If he explores all forms and substances Straight homeward to their symbol-essences; He shall not die.
Seriously, I've heard that many of them have started making a little extra doing espionage for foreign governments - to feed their habits.
um... if security is so lax, why aren't all those terrorists out there taking advantage of these security lapses? something doesn't add up here.
and the profit motive at work.. it really brings a tear to the eye when I consider how well unregulated private industry can solve these problems that governments just waste money on!
They keep throwing around this phrase "within 20 feet", but what does it actually mean? Were they a short walk away from touching the nuclear material, or were they separated from it by 20 feet of steel walls and blast doors? You can fit a lot of security into twenty feet.
The logical answer is yes, there is a significant mechanical barrier that needs to be penetrated before you can get your paws on the uranium. However, given the DOE's approach to security, it's possible that the stuff is held an a metal sided shack in 55 gallon drums. Of course, it's going to be difficult for the nun, et. al. to do anything with it. It's not like they're going to pick up the stuff and run very far so I'm not so worried.
It really is all theater, but I haven't figured out if this is a comedy or a tragedy.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
The fact that you anticipated the accusation that you are new here, by admitting that you are new here, suggests that you are not new here.
If security is this lax in the US, what's it like in other countries long forgotten stockpiles?
If the guard force had responded properly, there would be dead bodies. The people approaching the facility had cut through three fences and had backpacks which could have contained explosives. Shooting them was authorized. But the IG report doesn't admit that.
Why in the name of Oppenheimer did they fire the one guy who actually did his job, when everyone above and around him appeared to fail pretty seriously at theirs?
If he's the only person doing his job then that means his superiors that fired him also were not doing their job correctly -- their correct job being to fire the people who had failed through inaction. So, in order to maintain his status of being the only person who did his job, he would have to be fired otherwise his superiors might be misconstrued as doing their job correctly. This is all very simple Dilbert 101.
My work here is dung.
Precisely because:
The company was asked why it shouldn't be fired. They suck and had no plan, but by firing someone they could appear to be "taking action". Buy why the guy who did something? I'm not really sure how that logic works. Probably claimed he should have found the intruders sooner - obviously it was his area to patrol since he found them (not obviously anyone else's problem). Yes yes, I'm remembering how a PHB thinks.
I don't remember the joke, but the end goes something like: "and the nun said: 'it was huge and glowing!'"
No. "I gargled with that water..."
For a nun, that's a bad habit.
That's why the housepainter gave her a new coat.
The gardener was just there as a hedge.
(Comedy night at the Security Theater)
God knows....
Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
And this is why I heavily oppose leaving matters of security, safety, or health completely in the hands of one or more private companies. These three areas are rarely ever cost-effective and they're not meant to be. The reason we have these services in the first place is because people feel that they are valuable to the well-being of individuals as well as society as a whole, not because there is necessarily an economic benefit. I'm not opposed to having private companies involved in these three areas, but I believe there needs to be strict standards on the quality of service they provide, strong government oversight to make sure they're operating up to those standards, and repercussions for failing to meet the standards.
It doesn't sound as sensational after reading TFA.
Wasn't there some news recently about record numbers of unemployed veterans? Kick the private contractors out and bring in a bunch of people with security clearance and guard duty experience.
Are you implying that if the security were nationalized (ala TSA) that such ineptitude would not exist?
Why the explicit blame on "private security contractors"? Why not fire any private company who is not doing their job and find one that can/will?
Probably has to do with this quote and link from the article:
The obvious problems that result from so much contractor freedom are made clear by the recent inspector general report, which determined that this lack of federal oversight at least partially contributed to the success of the break-in PDF: "When questioned as to why action was not taken to address growing maintenance backlogs, Federal officials told us that with the advent of NNSA's contractor governance system (Contractor Assurance System), they could no longer intervene." In light of these findings, the inspector general had serious questions about the Energy Department's overall approach and determined that "current initiatives to reduce Federal oversight of the nuclear weapons complex, especially as they relate to security functions, need to be carefully considered."
There are many forms of nationalized security: some very bad (TSA) and some very good (National Guard). Private industry will save you money and, when pitted against each other in true capitalism form, they will cut corners to win contracts. Somethings should have security independent of how the economy is doing or how low some no talent ass clown is willing to bid on a contract.
My work here is dung.
Perhaps she was searching for nuclear wessels?
...was that the nun was 8 months pregnant under that habit.
WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
s/nun/muslim\ woman/ relatively similar attire, devotion to religious purity and god. The reaction i suspect would however have been to close the nuclear facility, seal off the town, arrest the security guards, quarantine the state as a no-fly zone, burn the constitution and start a war with next->countryOn($list);
Good people go to bed earlier.
... unless we build new reactors for every single suburb, in ten years we will be living in an apocolyptic world with no electricity.
Fun Fact: that was essentially Edison's plan for powering cities (just swap "reactors" with "coal-fired plants") before Tesla fucked it all up with his AC power transmission.
The More You Know
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
Energy Secretary Steven Chu has said, "The department has no tolerance for security breaches at any of our sites, and I am committed to ensure that those responsible will be held accountable."
you're a nun, you say? Well thanks for the free security assessment. In return, heres some biblical retribution.
Good people go to bed earlier.
That's why he was fired; he left the protesters alive, to give their story of how freaking easy it was.
If he'd shot them all, it would have been spun very differently, I'm sure; people would still be looking for the missing protesters, and a "terrorist group" would have been the aggressor, all killed in the attempt.
The Nun in question fell down during a TV interview at the Blount Co. Courthouse, and broke both wrists. :)
I grew up in OR, moved years ago, upwind. :)
In our drunkest hours, we never would have thought to do anything like this, lol. I always just assumed they Would shoot anyone on sight...
Talk about Security Theater... :facepalm:
Truth isn't Truth - Guliani
When the Republican party stops pushing to privatize everything?
We were all warned a long time ago that MS products sucked, remember the Magic 8 Ball said, "Outlook not so good"
Is it possible that this is misinformation? intended to deceive some would-be attackers? Just a thought.....
I've always said English was my second language. Had Romeo and Juliet been written in C, I might have understood it.
I lived in that area, and these people were in the news every year around August 5th (the Hiroshima anniversary). They and a lot of others gather to protest outside Y-12. You might look for better coverage in the local press, like the Knoxville News Sentinel. The linked article seems to exaggerate a bit, or at least to overstate the situation. At any rate, these people aren't violent, so far, and aren't likely to be, and I doubt they were actually near any "nuclear material," unless you're talking about the radioactive duck shit or "hot frogs on the loose." As to security and problems, well, oh boy. There are some there. Fires. Leaks and the aforementioned radioactive fauna. And then there are the Billy Bob Bubba approaches to security. And there's stuff that has gone on, at least according to hearsay that is more serious and that doesn't get covered, things like people watching the place and following the shipping trucks around.
Friend of a friend was a hacker who got that dream job: Security compliance at the Texas nuclear plants.
After he:
1) Fooled them into letting him in by carrying a box and asking them to hold the door.
2) Punched into a secure room by going through two sheets of sheetrock.
3) Punched into a "steel clad" area by showing the "steel" was easily cut with a hacksaw.
4) climbed out of the "man trap" within 30 seconds of being "trapped"
5) fooled employees into giving various passwords and access to secure areas..
and a half dozen other weaknesses...
They posted his PICTURE and told employees to be sure to keep an eye out for the security compliance guy.
They didn't really want to fix the problems.
Nuke plants are apparently mostly security through obscurity and bluffing.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
This isn't the first time in recent years this has happened... in 2009, protestors broke into SWFPAC at Naval Base Kitsap... which is where the USN keeps both D5 missiles and their warheads.
Poorly written security procedures:
Q: If attacked, how many terrorists will we allow to infiltrate?
A: None.
Have gnu, will travel.
The way I see it, there are several opportunities here. For starters, there are several jobs that should be advertised soon, also, there should be some contracts to come for security systems design, installation and maintenance. Failing that, I guess some enterprsing people could get into the business of uranium trading.....
Surely this at least calls for a wag of the finger!
The US has (from TFA) 300 to 400 metric tons of bomb-grade uranium?!
That... That is.. I mean. Who let them?!
*listens to phil collins and sting once more*
Privacy is terrorism.
This type of direct action civil disobedience has been going on since 1980, when the Berrigan brothers and others broke into a GE nuclear weapons plant in Pennsylvania and hammered on warhead nosecones. Dramatized in the excellent film "In the King of Prussia".
Remember "News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters"? Help make it a reality again! http://soylentnews.org
This is why we're not allowed to have nice things :(
Nuclear power could be awesome, but human beings struggle to maintain the level of focus required to keep it safe.
Seniors breaking into a Nuclear reactor?
I know it's been a while, but I'm pretty sure that I've seen this show before...
I should be ashamed of myself for reading it, but let's just say that I'm new here. TFA says that numerous cameras weren't working:
It sounds to me like it's NNSA that should be fired.
Speaking as a former U.S. Marine *and* as a current contractor working in and around nuclear power facilities, I sincerely hope you're just joking. The idea that you consider Marines "trigger happy" is highly offensive. We're trained very rigorously to *not* be trigger happy in the first place. We're not some bloodthirsty gang out to slaughter women and babies for the fun of it. If you've never served then I suppose it seems funny as hell to pretend that we are, but any professional Marine, soldier, sailor, or airman will tell you we do our damndest not to hurt innocents, even the point of getting maimed for life or killed in the process. Please try to show a little respect for that. And no, we're not victims looking for pity. Every one of us volunteered knowing what we were getting into.
Regarding the security at a nuclear facility, I've seen Y-12. The guards are armed but the rules are pretty strict about shooting at stuff. You can be quick to shoot and more likely than not you'll make the evening news killing some teens playing a prank. Cue the pacifists, the anti-nuke protesters, the anti-military groups, and every other bleeding heart group out there for a PR debacle in progress. Or you don't shoot on sight and you end up with nuns, gardeners, and what-have-you painting bible verses on your walls. Personally, I'd rather have a red face for the activists showing off than have to live with killing civilians by mistake.
Yes, the cameras being down is pretty pathetic. However, cutting through a few fences and banging on walls is a *LONG* way from stealing something like highly-enriched uranium. Last week I was walking 20 feet away from a nuclear reactor containment building, but there's no way in hell I could've gotten into it and I'm *authorized* to be on the site in the first place. Any bomb that's man-portable would have a hard time breaching any of these structures containing nuclear material. And if the goal was to steal a usable amount of nuclear material, any terrorist would have a helluva time getting away with stuff because it's heavy, dangerous, and stored in some pretty amazing containers.
If you want to throw stones, find out who is responsible for the security equipment budget at these sites and why those cameras were down for six months. Of course, what you might find is the cameras were down because getting a *permit* to get work done at a nuclear site is beyond ridiculous. I'm being quoted a 6-12 month permitting period just to get a breaker panel put in for network expansion. That's 6-12 months of waiting on paperwork so a job that will take 1-2 days can get done. Yes, it's that bad, so maybe the cameras being down wasn't really the fault of the security group.
In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet and say to us, Make us your slaves, but feed us. - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Speaking as a former U.S. Marine *and* as a current contractor working in and around nuclear power facilities, I sincerely hope you're just joking. The idea that you consider Marines "trigger happy" is highly offensive.
It seems a little ridiculous that you even have to make the correction. The nun and her buddies are still alive, after all. The proof is in the pudding, so to speak. Meanwhile nuclear-anything protests are ongoing on a permanent basis, and how many protestors have been shot? Any? I can't think of any. In, what, 40 years now?
The permitting period is indeed beyond ridiculous. I don't quite understand why bureaucracy concludes that foot-dragging is somehow equivalent to ass-covering, but it inevitably does.
The minimum method used is for handling machining wastes. There, supposedly, enriched materials capable of even moderate reaction are normally stored in containers no larger than 1 gallon paint cans, which are filled to very low capacities measured by weight (typically meaning they are each less than 5% full by volume), and then placed on a marked grid on a reinforced concrete floor, in such a way that there is a reliable safe minimum distance between them. People will supposedly be fired for letting cans get too close, as measured at ranges that are still way above actual risk. Materials that can oxidize spontaniously may be stored under oil or in inert atmospheres or both, as seems most prudent. Various barriers then further subdivide the marked grid, etc. All that's from public documentaries and similar sources.
For actual nuclear reactions, we're generally talking about densities where you couldn't even pour all the material in all the cans in a single building together to get a reaction that could even just possibly generate enough neutron flux to generate enough heat that the materials could even just possibly melt and become concentrated enough to produce a level of neutron emission that would actually be dangerous to the immediate area adjacent to the building, or tighter standards.
Chemical reactions, alas, are another story. Opening a single can of some of these substances, particularly if you could get it into an area with moist air or bring it into contact with something such as burning gasoline at the time, might be very lethal to the person opening it - there'd be a flash (chemical rapid oxidation, not nuclear) and the person would likely breathe in a lethal dose of a radioactive heavy metal oxide vapor - even there, persons who approached a few moments after the can was opened, say to render assistance to the idiot, would be in only moderate danger of a radiation dose health risk and if they suited up properly before cleaning up would be at very low risk. Again, that's theory - the basic procedues were worked out soon after the Daghlian and Slotin criticality accidents at Los Alamos in the 40's, they were refined after two non-lethal and mostly not even very injurious accidents in the 1958-59 period at Y-12, and they've been followed enough that there haven't been any more like those.
In 2003, Y-12 had an accident involving depleted Uranium buring chemically in a hotbox experiment after Calcium reacted with water triggering enough heat to touch off the DU. That resulted in three employees getting heavy metal exposures considered unsafe, but not likely to cause serious long term health consequences. (That's a mixed reliability claim - there's some argument about just how much of a health hazard breathing or ingesting Depleted uranium is, and it's quite possible the safety guidelines for it will be toughened up further) This was the only nuclear related accident at Y-12 reported under the current management. Note that it's not technically a radiation accident, as DU just basically is emitting less than naturally occuring Uranium, and bringing more of it together, heating it, and so on doesn't cause it to emit more. If it makes a difference, it happened as part of an experimental lab setup, not the process plant.
For Plutonium wastes, the amounts are supposed to be kept low enough that the potential heat can't trigger any sort of phase change, not just melting to an actually more ductile or semi-liquid state. It's the stuff actually 'stored' inside an H-bomb being refurbished that has real potential (although supposedly, the rest of the bomb and the Plutonium pit don't EVER enter the continental US still assembled - so if that's true, we are talking about parts of bombs, not complete bombs). So the question is just what was in the buildings the nun and her chums approached? Was it trimmed off milling wast
Who is John Cabal?
Nun shall pass!
this actually happened on July 28, as may have been noticed by others.
these guards are not public employees as some seem to be trying to assert.
as someone who lives near enough to Y-12 to be incinerated if anyone has a bad day out there, I am afraid these contractors would turn tail and run in the face of a real attack. The only reason there are not highly trained and motivated Marines guarding the place instead of the fat, old, lazy wighams is a long standing desire by DOE to do its own thing independently of DOD. I for one would be very happy if DOE started its own elite guard school, or farmed it out to the military, and got rid of the hessians.
with a private contractor motivated by money rather than patriotism you always have to wonder how cheaply the security force could be bought off, and the whole cookie jar ripped off or destroyed, leaving us with no cookies at all or having to make the unfortunately-worded request 'please send back our nuclear warheads as quickly as possible'.
although i doubt it i hope the cookie jar is really a honeypot designed to lure in the bad guys, while the real nukes are in an abandoned bowling alley somewhere.
I don't quite understand why bureaucracy concludes that foot-dragging is somehow equivalent to ass-covering, but it inevitably does.
The bureaucrats are waiting for someone in their office to give notice, retire, or transfer out. Then a whole bunch of stuff gets done, and if shit happens, then it is all blamed on someone who is no longer there.
I'm guessing that wasn't on their radar screen...
The nature of public security requires liability for failure. The reason the corporate legal structure exits is to diminish liability. As long as grasping shareholders can wash their hands while lining their pockets providing an inferior service through corrupt minions, many corporations will. The defence industry is another case in point.
Like the billion+ Catholics who do not break into abortion clinics? How many of those are excommunicated? Zero.
Please don't attack straw men.
Installations of new equipment would require permits, but repair of existing equipment shouldn't require anything more than getting permission to bring a lift on site to reach the cameras. Camera repair is not normally a budgeted item, it falls under maintenance just the same as getting the A/C in the administrative offices repaired. Ten to one the suits put a far higher priority on the latter than on the former.
"Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
You have to draw the line somewhere. Just like we design a nuclear facility to survive certain level earthquakes, but not a magnitude 9, the same can be said for security. If the nun had been 70 even 75 years old, they would have been able to stop her, but 82? That's asking too much.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
'please send back our nuclear warheads as quickly as possible'.
I know a guy who could handle this in 24 hours, or less.
I only look human.
My mother is a halfling and my dad is an ogre, so that makes me an Ogreling
"A nun, a gardener, and a housepainter" walk into a nuclear facility.
Yeees... and what's the rest of the joke?
Speaking as a former U.S. Marine *and* as a current contractor working in and around nuclear power facilities, I sincerely hope you're just joking. The idea that you consider Marines "trigger happy" is highly offensive.
I was just joking. The completely ridiculous statement about paying taxes to buy 'state of the fucking art tools for committing mass murder in the most efficient way possible' should have been a tip off.
The marines are tough, well disciplined troops who are really good at what they do. I said 'marines', and not army (typical for national defense installations), air force (since they control most of the delivery platforms), or national guard (The locals for the area) is because if you tell a marine to kill ANYONE who get within 100 years of the nuke fuel, he will do his job and he will do it well.
HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
Hitler was a housepainter...
That is no reason not to flog it. I want to see bone showing before you put the whip down. Get to it!
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
Hyperbole, flamebait. The Inquisition practiced violence. The Congregatipon for the Doctrine of Faith only affirms what is Catholic teaching and what is not. In extreme cases, they may move a heretic bishop from his see - this is immensely different from what the Inquisition did.
And they are lenient - if you go to a Catholic university, you will find lots of undisturbed Marxist professors. Hell, even in Catholic parishes you can find Marxist priests.
In fact, even the USCCB issues very progressive statements on immigration, the environment, the death penalty, government welfare and most other issues. John Paul II opposed the Iraq War. The clergy is only "conservative" on the right to life and family values.
Saying that the Church clergy are conservatives is an outright fabrication.
The Church is not asking the LCWR to "focus less on social justice"; the Church is only asking them to be more Catholic - respect the importance of the Eucharist, stop absorbing New Age beliefs, stop moving "beyond Jesus" (their words)- and that they _also_ start defending integral Church teaching. Oh, and they should also stop publishing books that defend sexual chaos.
They don't have to diminish they anti-poverty actions one bit.
"A nun, a gardener, and a housepainter cut through three security fences [...]" What was the punchline?