The other day, I saw a T.V. show on Y2K, in which they talked about the problems with nuclear missles. They said that the pentagon ran an offline test of 4 nukes last year. According to the report, 2 of the missles went off-line... and 2 of them went into lanch mode, and tried to FIRE!! An other report said that increased tensions between the superpowers, (such as the NATO attack on Serbia) increases the posibility of an acidental launch. I missed the titles of the shows, but I know it was on PAX TV. Comments, anyone??

-- Crono (Crono@timesend.com), April 05, 1999

Answers

Heard this too, I think on Fox a couple weeks ago, but DO NOT PANIC --- Bill and the girls will tell us this never really happened.

-- Jon Johnson (narnia4@usa.net), April 05, 1999.

Hi -- click on the link to see a mind-blowing article talking about Y2K and the Military:

Military Computer Numbers! + more ...

xxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx

-- Leska (allaha@earthlink.net), April 05, 1999.

Crono - have heard the rumor concerning the missiles several times, but have seen no documentation to confirm. All I can make of this is that it is a garbled report of *something* that may have happened in testing.

If, in fact, something did happen during testing, the critical issue here is whether the missile attempted to launch (improbably, but possible), or whether the glitch armed the warhead (nearly impossible). One glitch could not accomplish both.

Here's the thing: If it attempted to launch, without the guidance systems functional and without the warhead being armed, the end result would be a radioactive streak on the landscape when the unarmed warhead impacted randomly after the rocket engines ran out of fuel. In order to achieve critical mass, a nuke has to be activated in a specific manner, or it's just so much radioactive metal. Remember that old nuclear powered soviet spy sattelite that crashed in Canada a few years back - it would be like that. Big long streak of radioactive debris scattered across the country side for a mile or so.

Now on the other hand, if the glitch armed the warhead while the missile was still in the silo, you wouldn't have to worry about accidentally starting World War III, but the crew *would* have a rather exciting time sitting their waiting for the Explosive Ordinance Disposal guys to come in and safe the nuke...

this is all hypothetical, though, since there doesn't seem to be any way to verify the rumor(s)

Arlin

-- Arlin H. Adams (ahadams@ix.netcom.com), April 05, 1999.

We can expect the rumor factory to be stepping up production as this year rolls along toward 01/01/2000.

-- Tom Carey (tomcarey@mindspring.com), April 05, 1999.

This up on AP Breaking News:

Nuclear Plant Technicians Reassigned For Dangerous Safety Gaffe

[ For Educational Purposes Only ]

4/7/99 -- 10:07 AM

AMARILLO, Texas (AP) - Three technicians at the Pantex nuclear weapons plant were reassigned because of a safety mistake that created a danger of a non-nuclear explosion.

There was no threat of a nuclear blast, a spokesman said today. The technicians failed to detach a weapons component from a missile warhead before running an electrical test on the part on March 29, according to government and contractor reports. The component was connected to a W-87 warhead, which is used in the MX or Peacekeeper intercontinental ballistic missile system.

The technicians quickly realized the mistake after taking a test reading and disconnected a battery-powered tester from the weapon, and there was no damage.

A Pantex spokesman said today the mistake could not have led to a nuclear detonation.

``Absolutely, unequivocally, positively not,'' Perry Hoag said. However, there is always a concern that the high explosives packed around the nuclear core of the weapon could cause a conventional explosion, he said.

Even that would not cause the nuclear warhead to explode, Hoag said. ``Without the codes and all of the steps that go into creating a nuclear explosion, we couldn't make that happen even if we tried,'' Hoag said.

A conventional explosion could cause some radiation to leak from the nuclear core, but disassembly and testing is conducted inside a facility designed to contain a leak, he said. Pantex has never had an explosion during testing since beginning operations in 1951, Hoag said.

The incident is being reviewed by the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, which oversees U.S. defense nuclear facilities, said board member A.J. Eggenberger.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
All sorts of little unexpected quirks when testing. There will be a lot of Y2K testing (hopefully) soon, and we hope everybody is very careful and attentive.

xxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx

-- Leska (allaha@earthlink.net), April 07, 1999.

http://www.drudgereport.com/
NY TIMES BOMBSHELL: CHINA MAY HAVE STOLEN NEUTRON BOMB DURING CLINTON TERM


-- h (h@h.h), April 07, 1999.