Thursday, March 24, 2016
Carnegie: Nuclear Material Isn’t Secure Enough
“We are improving security at our nuclear facilities,” President Obama told the 2012 Seoul Nuclear Security Summit. Four months later, an 82-year-old nun and two other senior citizens broke into the complex at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, where the United States stores most of its weapons-grade uranium.
They cut through four fences, set off sensors and alarms, hammered on the outside of the storage building, and defaced it with paint and human blood. They remained on the site for over an hour before a guard finally arrested them.
The security failures revealed by Sister Megan Rice at the Y-12 National Security Complex were legion, rooted in complacency and poor training. Management tolerated high false-alarm rates, leading guards to ignore the warnings. Workers dismissed the pounding on the building as unscheduled maintenance. Guards violated communications and weapons-handling procedures when making the arrests. . .