[Infowarrior] - US forgot how to make Trident missiles

[Richard Forno]

source: http://www.sundayherald.com/news/heraldnews/display.var.2494129.0.0.php

How the US forgot how to make Trident missiles

Inquiry cites loss of files and key staff as reason for $69m repair  
delay
By Rob Edwards, Environment Editor
PLANS TO refurbish Trident nuclear weapons had to be put on hold  
because US scientists forgot how to manufacture a component of the  
warhead, a US congressional investigation has revealed.

The US National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) "lost  
knowledge" of how to make a mysterious but very hazardous material  
codenamed Fogbank. As a result, the warhead refurbishment programme  
was put back by at least a year, and racked up an extra $69 million.

According to some critics, the delay could cause major problems for  
the UK Trident programme, which is very closely tied to the US  
programme and uses much of the same technology. The US and the UK are  
trying to refurbish the ageing W76 warheads that tip Trident missiles  
in order to prolong their life, and ensure they are safe and reliable.  
This apparently requires that the Fogbank in the warheads is replaced.

Neither the NNSA nor the UK Ministry of Defence would say anything  
about the nature or function of Fogbank. But it is thought by some  
weapons experts to be a foam used between the fission and fusion  
stages of a thermonuclear bomb. US officials have said that  
manufacturing the material requires a solvent cleaning agent which is  
"extremely flammable" and "explosive". The process also involves  
dealing with "toxic materials" hazardous to workers.

Over the last year the Government Accountability Office (GAO), which  
reports to the US Congress, has been investigating the W76  
refurbishment programme. An unclassified version of its final report  
was released last week. The GAO report concluded: "NNSA did not  
effectively manage one of the highest risks of the programme - the  
manufacture of a key material known as Fogbank - resulting in $69m in  
cost over-runs and a schedule delay of at least one year that  
presented significant logistical challenges for the navy."

For the first time, the report described the difficulties faced by the  
NNSA in trying to make Fogbank. A new production facility was needed  
at the Y-12 National Security Complex at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, because  
an old one had been demolished in the 1990s.

But vital information on how Fogbank was actually made had somehow  
been mislaid. "NNSA had lost knowledge of how to manufacture the  
material because it had kept few records of the process when the  
material was made in the 1980s, and almost all staff with expertise on  
production had retired or left the agency," the report said.

The GAO report also accused the NNSA of having an inconsistent  
approach to costing the W76 refurbishment programme. The total cost  
was put at $2.1 billion in 2004, $6.2bn in 2005 and $2.7bn in 2006.

To John Ainslie, the co-ordinator of the Scottish Campaign for Nuclear  
Disarmament, it was "astonishing" that the Fogbank blueprints had been  
lost. "This is like James Bond destroying his instructions as soon as  
he has read them," he said. "Perhaps the plans for making Fogbank were  
so secret that no copies were kept. The British warhead is similar to  
the American version, and so the problems with Fogbank may delay  
Aldermaston's plans for renewing or replacing Trident."

The NNSA's principal deputy administrator, William Ostendorff, said  
that the agency "generally agrees" with the findings of the GAO  
report. He stressed that NNSA was strengthening its management  
procedures. He added: "As with many processes that implement increased  
rigour, there is a need for identification of increased funding in  
order to increase the fidelity in project risk assessment."

UK sources suggested, though, that the US and UK designs were not  
identical. All the details of exactly how nuclear weapons are put  
together are classified as top secret in both countries.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence told the Sunday Herald: "It is  
MoD policy not to comment on nuclear warhead design. To do so would,  
or would be likely to, prejudice national security."