Memory Booster

Mr. Potato Head it ain’t—all the more reason we need a few good nuclear engineers to step forward. Or at least a few old ones.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently reported that the  National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) “lost knowledge” of how to make a critical component of a a nuclear warhead used in the Trident missile system.

The British and Americans want to upgrade the aging warheads used in their sea-launched ballistic missile submarines. Codenamed “Fogbank,” it is speculated that the component is a hazardous material used as a physical barrier between fission and fusion portions of each device.

But the GAO report stated, with general agency agreement, that there is no institutional memory of this secret component’s composition or manufacturing process. Engineers who worked on this 1980s project are either retired or passed on. The bungling has resulted in increased warhead safety worries, as well as the upgrade program being put back by at least a year. It is estimated that the fogginess about Fogbank will cost U.S. taxpayers an extra $69 million. The renovation is part of an overall program to increase the lifespan of the Trident II missiles, each containing a treaty-limited three independently targetable warheads, an additional 13 years.

Knowledgeable individuals must be out there. The government might entice a few good older weapons specialists by throwing in a free, HUD-foreclosed retirement bungalow in Miami to every applicant. But until the NNSA develops better institutional memory, we may have to start worrying about the bomb, or more specifically our own bombs, all over again.

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~ by deadmanscurve on April 25, 2009.