I understand that there could be statistical issues but I still get nervous when there is even the possibility of a loss or missing material. This 1996 DOE memo (warning, PDF) has a table where they attempt to explain why there are discrepancies in the amount of plutonium. Some of the explanations still have question marks! For Los Alamos the explanation includes the sentence, “Is full difference due to what is still managed under safeguards and security?”
If the CDC lost a vial of smallpox or ebola or anthrax, I think we should be told. If plutonium is missing, we should be looking for it.
I don’t disagree, Erie774. Any quick look at the history of management at Hanford would leave anyone questioning just how much National Security seems to exclude Americans who are caught up in the works.
I don’t mean to imply that the potential for loss isn’t worrisome. Nor that it doesn’t need to be investigated. Having said that, based on some of the things I know about the mess at Hanford, sometimes it seems the only answer that will be available to us, now, is to hope that the original numbers were off. Not very comforting, I know.
To paraphrase one of the Perfect Master’s more memorable asides: “…and if he were to actually find it there, the whole country might be a whole lot better off.”
…Hey, wait a second! I clearly remember that column, and the one in the archives has been significantly altered in tone! …Yep, found my Straight Dope paperback; page 229! I mean, I can accept a bit of judicious updating to acknowledge the fact that Reagan’s more dead than he was back then, but holy Christ! “You know I loved the Gipper…” What the hell is that about?! Foul! I call foul, Cecil! Loving the Gipper? Oh god, now my brain is being attacked by images of Reagan/Adams nasty! Why are you doing this to me, Unca Cece?! WHY?!?
Oh man, even the parting shot has been emasculated! The original line was: “The upshot of all this is that Re[a]gan’s statement consists of about 1 percent fact to 99 percent jive-- about what you’d expect from a guy who once claimed pollution was caused by trees.” Now it’s: “Politicians can say what they like, but nuclear waste just won’t go away.” A generic slam on politicians? That’s limper than month-old celery! Who are you, Jay Leno?
This is terrible! All my illusions are crumbling. I suppose that ten years from now, the final line of this archived column will read something like: “If history has judged Bush with less affection than I do, it’s not because of misperceptions surrounding his youthful service to his country, but because of political bias against a dear, dear man.” These archives are full of lies, I tell you! LIES!