The Department of Energy instead turned to computer simulations and laboratory experiments to evaluate its stockpile, and established the Institute for Shock Physics at Washington State University to support these efforts. signed the United Nations Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, banning live nuclear weapons tests. When pressed on specifics, the laboratory’s senior public affairs advisor, Greg Koller, clarified that it “has done work to support the nation’s nuclear deterrent.”īattelle Memorial Institute, which operates the laboratory, was Washington’s second-largest recipient of federal contracts over the last year, $1.3 billion. The lab’s spokesman first commented that it “has not been involved in nuclear weapons (research & development).” The laboratory has continued to tweak the rod design for maximum tritium production. “Why isn’t it going to happen next year?” “The Navy will tell you we haven’t had an accident with a Trident missile in 40 years, which is in my mind a very poor argument,” Milner said. “When you try to keep things too secret, the people who should know about it don't.” Secrecy is “where the problem lies,” Milner said. Records obtained by Glen Milner of Ground Zero revealed four incidents between 20 in which Bangor's nuke-carrying submarines collided with objects, including logs and vessels, and one “near miss with a merchant ship.” None of the incidents was catastrophic. When KUOW presented those reports to Horton, a spokesman responded that they couldn’t confirm or deny the presence of nukes at any time. Initially, Horton, Fairchild’s historian, told KUOW that all nuclear weapons were “definitively” removed from the base in 1991, suggesting the bunker didn’t have nukes at the time.īut government reports state that 85 nuclear bombs remained at Fairchild at least through 1997. The impact missed a nuclear weapons storage bunker by 50 feet, according to witness statements at the time. In 1994, a Boeing B-52 practicing for an air show at Fairchild Air Force Base crashed, killing four people. The government often won’t say whether an incident involved nukes. Here have been nuke-related mishaps in Washington, but no official count.
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