“In the pre-dawn hours of July 28, 2012, they hiked a wooded ridge, cut through four fences, and splashed human blood and spray-painted biblical messages on the outside of the building that warehouses an estimated 400 tons of highly enriched uranium — enough to fuel 10,000 nuclear bombs.”

“The unprecedented intrusion shut down operations at the site for two weeks, led to four congressional hearings and exposed a glitch-ridden security system that cost $150 million a year. The National Nuclear Security Administration, a semiautonomous agency within the Energy Department, responded to the break-in with a variety of security measures, from installing 2,850 linear feet of concertina wire to requiring that malfunctioning security tools be repaired within 24 hours.

Babcock & Wilcox Technical Services Y-12, the site’s private contractor for management and operations, was docked $12.2 million in fees and lost a 10-year contract worth $23 billion to manage both Y-12, where uranium is stored and processed, and the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Tex., where nuclear weapons are assembled and disassembled.” – Washington Post

Click image to open MIT pdf MIT-NSP-TR-025
J. Buongiorno, et al., Technical Lessons Learned from the Fukushima-Daiichi
Accident and Possible Corrective Actions for the Nuclear Industry :
An Initial Evaluation (May 2011).

 

 

Cat’s out of the proverbial bag.   Thesis project has been approved.

Some minor “caveats” were submitted along with the approval.

Last night Meryl Davis and Charlie White win first-ever U.S. gold in Olympic ice dancing. They were beautiful.  The NBC producer decided that we should listen – and watch – two pudgy mummies hold stick microphones and prattle forgettably about nothing instead of allowing viewers to listen and watch as our national anthem was played for Ms. Davis and Mr. White.

Maybe NBC sub-contracted and used a producer from the Russian Federation to cover the event?  Probably not.  The Russians would have featured the athletes, not the newscasters.

Yes, the mispronunciation Scheherazade by NBC’s Tracy Wilson was an aesthetic fail.  But it still wasn’t as bad as NBC’s editorializing of the over-the-top beautiful art and ballet in this year’s unforgettable Olympic opening.   Sometimes American brands can be flat out embarrassing.