[Infowarrior] - LANL Accidentally Blows up Building with a Cannon

[Richard Forno]

(c/o Dissent)

Los Alamos National Laboratory Researchers Accidentally Blow up  
Building with a Cannon

http://www.pogowasright.org/blogs/dissent/?p=1825

According to a Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) Occurrence  
Report, “Shock and Detonation Physics Group researchers heard a loud  
unusual noise from Technical Area 15, Building 562 after firing a shot  
from a large-bore powder gun (LBPG).” The researchers accidentally  
blew a building apart at Technical Area-15, on December 16, 2009 while  
testing a gun which acts like a Civil War cannon.

While no one was hurt, sources advise POGO that there was over $3  
million in damage to property.  The explosion blew the doors off the  
building — which is described in the report as, “two doors were  
propelled off the facility.”

The Facility Operations Director “declared a management concern due to  
the significant facility structural damage incurred resultant of the  
shot.” Parts of the cannon were found outside the building.

“I must say that this is a new twist in the long history of screw-ups  
by Los Alamos.” POGO’s Senior Investigator, Peter Stockton. “I have no  
idea in the world why they have a gun like this, let alone testing it.”

For more information on POGO’s Los Alamos National Laboratory files  
click here.

Founded in 1981, the Project On Government Oversight (POGO) is an  
independent nonprofit that investigates and exposes corruption and  
other misconduct in order to achieve a more effective, accountable,  
open, and ethical federal government.