Bits and Pieces - February 22, 2010

Here's the best commentary I've found on the closing of the FBI's Amerithrax investigation of the anthrax attacks of October 2001, and the FBI's site on the invesgtigation.

It's ridiculous to keep this classified. The National Nuclear Security Administration should be telling us how many warheads they've been disassembling. Estimates by Hans Kristensen of the Federation of American Scientists:

260 warheads disassembled per year
4500 warheads awaiting diasassembly
60,6000 disassembled total
11,000 disassembled during the nineties

Those 4500 warheads will require 17 years to disassemble at a rate of 260 a year, and funding for the program is decreasing, while competing programs are increasing. However, NNSA says dismantlement will be completed by 2022. The math doesn't work.

And they should be melting down the pits or making them into an oxide, not just storing them.

Some people like to live close to the edge.