Fuzzy Logic

CNN brings us this little gem:

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has formally ordered the Air Force, Navy and Defense Logistics Agency to conduct an inventory of all U.S. nuclear weapons and nuclear weapon-related materials to make sure all items are accounted for, according to a Pentagon memo released Thursday.

What’s that, Secretary Gates? You mean that we have to take care of the most powerful weapons known to mankind? I am absolutely horrified with the casual manner that the United States seems to act with in respect to their nuclear weapons. The know-how to make a nuclear weapon is no longer hard to come by–the nuclear physics is relatively simple and could be figured out by a few graduate students in physics and nuclear engineering. The really hard part of building a nuclear bomb is getting the appropriate nuclear material. Seeing as how we have somewhere near 5000 nuclear warheads (according to Wikipedia) around in the United States alone, I would hope this is a top priority.

Just as big of a priority, of course, is the fact that there are over 400 nuclear power plants active in the world, with almost all of those running on a uranium fuel. Why we aren’t policing those as well, I’m not sure–Uranium bombs are generally not as powerful, but they’re a lot easier to make, disassemble, transport, and reassemble.

I think the most interesting thing from this entire article, however, is the fact that Secretary Gates is giving the US Forces sixty days to locate all of our nuclear warheads and to report back. This brings up two very very interesting questions–First of all, why does it take sixty days to count all of our most powerful weapons? Secondly, if we were in a war situation and needed to launch our nuclear missiles at a country, how long would it take the Air Force/Navy to respond then? If missiles from Russia are supposed to take around twenty minutes to hit the mainland United States, shouldn’t we theoretically be able to do a relatively close count of our nuclear weapons in, say, double that time? The only exceptions, I would assume, would be nuclear subs sleeping out in the ocean, only getting signals every once in a while. Other than those subs, every nuclear weapon depot and Air Force base with nuclear bombs should be able to perform an accurate count in less than a day. I think the sixty days are just a great ‘out’ given by the Defense Department, basically saying “If you can’t find your nukes right now, you better find them in the next 59 days or else you’re going to be in trouble.”

The pessimistic side of me says that I shouldn’t be surprised: that it is the government, and I should let it go. The realistic side of me, however, says that these are nuclear weapons capable of slaughtering millions of people with ease and maybe, just maybe, we should keep track of them.