I tried to escape... and I am still in the GWN!

[ats at longcoeur.com (Patrick Bureau)]

Hey Billy-bob?
Yeah Bubba?

What you make of this crack ?
Oh that is simple... get the duct tape, it will hold it.


AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

-----Original Message-----
From: E.Noval [mailto:aion@sdf.lonestar.org] 
Sent: Sunday, January 25, 2004 8:28 AM
To: Patrick Bureau
Subject: RE: I tried to escape... and I am still in the GWN!



Thought you'd like to know...

While you were away from Texas, people back 'home' were duct taping
nuclear missiles...They almost blew Texas (and the entire SW) off the map.
As they say... it almost had "potentially unacceptable consequences". Nice
way to put it...




Nuke Workers Taped Explosive Components

By MATT KELLEY
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Workers dismantling an aging nuclear weapon improperly
secured broken pieces of a highly explosive component by taping them
together, federal investigators found. An explosion could have occurred,
they said.

The incident was among several recent safety lapses at the Energy
Department's Pantex plant near Amarillo, Texas, noted by the independent
Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. Last fall, workers taking apart
another old warhead accidentally drilled into the warhead's radioactive
core, forcing evacuation of the facility.

This month's unorthodox handling of the unstable explosive increased the
risk that the technicians would drop it and set off a "violent reaction,"
the safety board said Tuesday in a letter to Energy Secretary Spencer
Abraham.

Such a reaction could have "potentially unacceptable consequences," board
chairman John T. Conway said in the letter, which raised disquieting
questions about safety at the Pantex plant.

About 250,000 people live within 50 miles of the Pantex plant, where the
motto on its Web site is "Maintaining the safety, security and
reliability of America's nuclear weapons stockpile."

Nothing exploded, and no one was hurt.

The National Nuclear Security Administration, which oversees the Energy
Department's nuclear weapons programs, is investigating, spokesman Bryan
Wilkes said Friday.

"Safety remains a priority for us," Wilkes said. "We are working to
address the issues in the letter."

Safety board chairman Conway's letter did not make clear whether the
explosive had been separated at the time from the softball-sized chunk of
plutonium that forms the pit, or trigger, of a thermonuclear warhead. To
prevent a thermonuclear blast, the pit would have to have been separated
from the larger warhead.

If the explosive were still connected to the trigger, an explosion could
have injured or killed workers and could have spread plutonium or other
radioactive materials around the facility.

The taping and removal of the explosive did not go as planned, and only
quick thinking by the technicians prevented them from dropping the
explosive, Conway wrote.

Conway said taping the explosives together was one of several mistakes
made by Pantex officials that risked an explosion. Pantex officials also
played down the risk, Conway said, calling the cracks in the explosive
and the fact that workers taped it together a trivial change in
procedures.

Jud Simmons, a spokesman for Pantex plant operator BWX Technologies Inc.,
did not return telephone messages on Friday.

The pit's plutonium is surrounded by an explosive shell. When the
explosives detonate, the plutonium is compressed and causes a nuclear
explosion. In a thermonuclear weapon, that explosion sets off an even
stronger nuclear blast.

Workers dismantling the pit in question found the explosive was cracked,
which made it more unstable and easier to detonate, Conway wrote. Their
solution was to tape together the cracked explosives and move them to
another location.

In his letter, Conway said other problems included:

-Failing to consult the explosives' manufacturer to determine how
unstable the cracked explosives might be;

-Performing an incomplete and inadequate safety review before going
ahead;

-Allowing workers to perform the taping and removal without practicing on
a mock-up;

-Failing to have experts who had developed the procedure watch the taping
and removal to try to spot any problems.

Conway's letter does not elaborate on what might have happened had the
explosive detonated.

The Nuclear Facilities Safety Board has an inspector stationed at the
Pantex plant and at the nation's other nuclear weapons sites. Weekly
reports by the Pantex inspector, William White, show several problems
with safety at the plant, including flaws in the software designed to
control the movement of nuclear and explosive materials around the site.

White reported in October that Pantex technicians had made a mistake
while dismantling a W62 warhead from a Minuteman missile. A drill damaged
part of the warhead's nuclear core, prompting officials to evacuate the
facility until experts determined that no radiation had leaked, White
wrote.




On Sun, 25 Jan 2004, Patrick Bureau wrote:

> Date: Sun, 25 Jan 2004 09:17:39 -0600
> From: Patrick Bureau <ats@longcoeur.com>
> To: 'dswalterwi' <dswalterwi@earthlink.net>
> Cc: 'Scirocco List' <Scirocco-l@scirocco.org>
> Subject: RE: I tried to escape... and I am still in the GWN!
>
> Because I entered the USA in 97 with a TN-1 Visa (NAFTA) that lasted 2
> years, then I left for 10 months waiting for my K3 (life act) visa. Got
that
> but its only good for 2 years, the renewal for this visa and my work
permit
> have been in process for over 4 months now (started it 3 months prior to
end
> of visa/permit expiry time as advise by INS to do so) but yet to receive
the
> renewal papers telling me to pick up K3 visa.) But now I am in Montr?al
> under the Alien Immigration Visa (once landed I will change the status to
> Landed alien immigration visa (yet another 1500$) and I will be good for
10
> years in the USA.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: dswalterwi [mailto:dswalterwi@earthlink.net]
> Sent: Saturday, January 24, 2004 11:40 AM
> To: 'Patrick Bureau'; Scirocco-l@scirocco.org
> Cc: TST@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: RE: I tried to escape... and I am still in the GWN!
>
> If you have been here since 1997 why haven't you become a US Citizen??
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: scirocco-l-bounces@scirocco.org
> [mailto:scirocco-l-bounces@scirocco.org] On Behalf Of Patrick Bureau
> Sent: Friday, January 23, 2004 7:06 PM
> To: Scirocco-l@scirocco.org
> Cc: TST@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: I tried to escape... and I am still in the GWN!
>
> Well... its official US INS SUCKS ASS BIG TIME!
>
>
>
> Got to Canada on a 11 day warning, got my 200$ medical (cough
 good

> here is
> your certificate) and waited patiently 4 days in -22?c freezing weather
> to
> acquiest the stupid immigration request that I present myself 1800 Miles
> away from my home to get an Alien Immigrant Visa.
>
>
>
> Have an appointment at 8.30
 waited 4 hrs to see someone, to be told we
> should of brought (not that any of the provided documentation sent to me
> indicated any need for these documents) 2002 tax returns and pay stub
> for
> 2003 to prove my wife can ?support? me being in the us (though I have
> been
> in Texas since early 1997 working full time all this time, and they
> acknowledge knowing I have been working self-supporting myself and my
> wife
> all this time)
>
>
>
> So we say fine, well just drive home , mail the request data to them
> from
> texas and they can MAIL us the damn visa (as per the new documents given
> to
> us as they asked us to leave the embassy) and load the jeep and head to
> the
> ?La Cole? New-York/Canada drive-thru customs

>
>
>
> Please pull to immigration office # 3 well just do some paper work
.
> Yeah
> sure
 wait 2 hrs
 sorry you cannot enter the country

>
>
>
> The reason?
>
> Because I am married to an American citizen I MUST wait for a visa to
> get
> back in
  (Like that makes ANY sense)
>
>
>
> Drove back to my parents in Montr?al
 where we are getting stuff faxed
> and
> FedEx overnight to us from Texas (yeas our income taxes are in Texas

> not
> the usual item to bring on a 1 week vacation to Canada
) and we shall
> try
> our hand at the embassy a second time around Monday

>
>
>
> -- Sorry I needed to vent --
>
>
>
> ATS - Patrick Bureau - ats@longcoeur.com
>
> 1985 3A/JH 2L - 102.5 Whp, 121 Torque
>
> 75, 77, 79, 80, 81s , 82, 86 on stand by.
>
> web site : http://ats.longcoeur.com
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Scirocco-l mailing list
> Scirocco-l@scirocco.org
> http://neubayern.net/mailman/listinfo/scirocco-l
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Scirocco-l mailing list
> Scirocco-l@scirocco.org
> http://neubayern.net/mailman/listinfo/scirocco-l
>
>





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