A near-disaster at a federal nuclear weapons laboratory takes a hidden toll on America’s arsenal

Repeated safety lapses hobble Los Alamos National Laboratory’s work on the cores of U.S. nuclear warheads

As reported in an extensive article, which chronicles the history of fatal nuclear criticality accidents at Los Alamos (in Sept. 1945, May 1946, and again in 1958), and worldwide (as at Tokai-mura, Japan in Sept., 1999), the investigative journalism reveals a 2011 near-miss criticality accident, due to ignorance and arrogance, at Los Alamos. The article is written by Patrick Malone at the Center for Public Integrity, with national security managing editor R. Jeffrey Smith contributing.

This article is but Part One of a Five Part series entitled "Nuclear Negligence."

As described on the Center for Public Integrity's website:

Nuclear Negligence examines safety weaknesses at U.S. nuclear weapon sites operated by corporate contractors. The Center’s probe, based on contractor and government reports and officials involved in bomb-related work, revealed unpublicized accidents at nuclear weapons facilities, including some that caused avoidable radiation exposures. It also discovered that the penalties imposed by the government for these errors were typically small, relative to the tens of millions of dollars the NNSA gives to each of the contractors annually in pure profit.

Michael Flynn, Russia, and a Grand Scheme to Build Nuclear Power Plants in Saudi Arabia and the Arab World

As reported by Jeff Stein at Newsweek.

The nuclear weapons proliferation risks -- which means the risks of nuclear war -- are dire.

Democratic Rep. Peter Welch Condemns Trump's "Reckless" Threats Toward North Korea

As reported by Democracy Now!:

The Trump administration sent mixed signals on North Korea Thursday, as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the U.S. is open to direct negotiations with Kim Jong Un’s regime over his country’s nuclear program, while President Trump hinted at a possible nuclear war. Trump made the remark in an interview with the Reuters news service. Trump’s comment came as Secretary of State Tillerson told NPR he’s open to direct talks with North Korea if the country is serious about permanently abandoning its nuclear program. Meanwhile, President Trump told Reuters that South Korea should pay the $1 billion price tag for a THAAD missile defense system the U.S. recently began installing. Trump suggested the U.S. could cancel a free trade deal between the two countries if South Korea doesn’t accept the demand. "I think the president should be talking diplomacy," says our guest Peter Welch, U.S. Congressman from Vermont. He is Chief Deputy Whip of the House Democratic Caucus, "not making a reckless threat of military action where it is going to be very damaging."

Watch the full video of the interview, as posted at the link above.

Nuclear Free Future: Nuclear Sabre-Rattling - From Korea to Yucca Mountain

Margaret Harrington and co-host Ben Shulman-Reed, researcher with Fairewinds Energy Education, speak with Kevin Kamps, Nuclear Waste Watchdog with Beyond Nuclear, about nuclear escalation on "Nuclear Free Future," an ongoing series on Channel 17/Town Meeting Television in Burlington, Vermont. The discussion covers not only the nuclear escalation in the Korean Peninsula but the continuous nuclear weapons buildup, including nuclear waste, uranium mining, and nuclear weapons testing. Watch the episode here.

Chomsky: Like Obama, Trump Is Radically Increasing the Danger of Nuclear War

As reported by Democracy Now!