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Wildfires Threaten Nuclear Weapons Plant In Texas (independent.co.uk) 68

Posted by BeauHD from the close-calls dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Independent: Wildfires sweeping across Texas briefly forced the evacuation of America's main nuclear weapons facility as strong winds, dry grass and unseasonably warm temperatures fed the blaze. Pantex Plant, the main facility that assembles and disassembles America's nuclear arsenal, shut down its operations on Tuesday night as the Windy Deuce fire roared towards the Potter County location. Pantex re-opened and resumed operations as normal on Wednesday morning. Pantex is about 17 miles (27.36 kilometers) northeast of Amarillo and some 320 miles (515 kilometers) northwest of Dallas. Since 1975 it has been the US's main assembly and disassembly site for its atomic bombs. It assembled the last new bomb in 1991. "We have evacuated our personnel, non-essential personnel from the site, just in an abundance of caution," said Laef Pendergraft, a spokesperson for National Nuclear Security Administration's Production Office at Pantex. "But we do have a well-equipped fire department that has trained for these scenarios, that is on-site and watching and ready should any kind of real emergency arise on the plant site."
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Wildfires Threaten Nuclear Weapons Plant In Texas More

Wildfires Threaten Nuclear Weapons Plant In Texas

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  • So the one star state (Score:5, Funny)

    by BroccoliKing ( 6229350 ) on Thursday February 29, 2024 @12:21AM (#64277704)
    Is really just a rating.

    • one star state

      Which one? Arizona, California, Idaho, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Texas, and Wyoming each have one and only one star on their state flag. And we can add Utah in about two weeks [wikipedia.org], followed by Minnesota in May [wikipedia.org] to that list.

      Also, lest anyone think Texans are still the only Lone Star state, don’t forget that California had a Lone Star flag too [wikipedia.org].

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by jhoegl ( 638955 )
        What are you talking about?

        I suggest you look up some of those flags, because your data is as old as your whataboutism logic.

        • I verified every one I mentioned against a high res copy of what I understood to be the current state flag for that state, actually. It’s possible I made a mistake. I’ll own my mistakes. Feel free to point them out.

      • That's what a joke needs: a "well akshually" followed by a detailed analysis.

        Really, the 1 star is a rating for Texas chili, gvien by anyone who has visited Texas' western neighbour.

        • That's what a joke needs: a "well akshually" followed by a detailed analysis.

          That’s what Slashdot lives for: sucking all the fun out of a good joke that was sloppy with its precision.

          Really, the 1 star is a rating for Texas chili, gvien by anyone who has visited Texas' western neighbour.

          I live in Texas, and I’m with you on the chili situation. Can’t speak to what NM has to offer, but I’ve never been especially impressed by “Texas chili”. This whole “chili has no beans” insistence is silly to me. I’ve had what I thought were tasty chilis in a number of styles and from a number of regions, but usually when someone insists theirs is th

          • That's what a joke needs: a "well akshually" followed by a detailed analysis.

            That’s what Slashdot lives for: sucking all the fun out of a good joke that was sloppy with its precision.

            Really, the 1 star is a rating for Texas chili, gvien by anyone who has visited Texas' western neighbour.

            I live in Texas, and I’m with you on the chili situation. Can’t speak to what NM has to offer, but I’ve never been especially impressed by “Texas chili”. This whole “chili has no beans” insistence is silly to me. I’ve had what I thought were tasty chilis in a number of styles and from a number of regions, but usually when someone insists theirs is the superior one, the bowl of their chili that gets put in front of me doesn’t really make their point very well, at least to me. But I’m just a guy who eats the stuff a few times a year, not a chilihead or whatever nickname they have for people in that space.

            We have something similar up North with pizza. Yeah, NY Pizza is probably the best, objectively...but it's like 5-10% better than any other city. If you have Italian immigrants at some point in your history, you have good Pizza. NY Pizza is better than pizza in Bangor, Boston, or Philadelphia...but like 5% better...but the New Yorkers think it's like 5x. Like they're a whole world apart. Like their Pizza is greatness and non-NY pizza is stale frozen pizza cooked in a microwave, when in reality, if we

            • but the New Yorkers think it's like 5x. Like they're a whole world apart. Like their Pizza is greatness and non-NY pizza is stale frozen pizza cooked in a microwave, when in reality, if we didn't tell you where each slice comes from, you'd never be able to guess. Are Texans the same?

              Oh, of course. People are people. Same old regional preferences and tribal tendencies as anywhere else. Same reason people enjoy schadenfreude when others can't tolerate a variety of extreme weather or natural disaster that they're used to dealing with (e.g. Texas losing its entire power grid in "a little cold", New York getting flooded by "just a Cat 3").

              I mean, Texas BBQ...is it great? Sure. Texans nail their brisket, beef ribs, and sausages. They've got those figured out (just don't believe any Texans wh

          • I live in Texas, and Iâ(TM)m with you on the chili situation. Canâ(TM)t speak to what NM has to offer,

            I used to work with a couple of guys. One was an openly bisexual atheist hippie from Las Cruces, the other was a devout Catholic (mellowed slightly from whichever completely loony cult his parents were from) from somewhere in Texas.

            When I went into their office, half the time they were arguing about politics. The other half they were arguing with equal or possibly greater vehemence about which sta

            • Sounds absolutely amazing. Seriously has my mouth watering. Getting over the border to Las Cruces would unfortunately be an 11-hour drive for me, but we do plan to travel West on road trips to hit up various national parks and places as the kids get older, so I'll try to keep this tidbit burning in the back of my brain until then, since I otherwise only exit the state in the other direction. Sounds like it'll be worth it.

      • Texas is the only one that consistently draws attention to its one star status.

        • I’d argue otherwise. I’d say they’re the loudest, by virtue of size, but that many of those other states are very proud of their stars too and routinely draw attention to them. I’d say Texas draws attention to their Lone Star, which is a proper noun, not “one star status”.

          But at the end of the day, mine was just a cheeky, overly-researched “could you be more precise?” to a legitimately funny joke that was already clear from context clues. It’s not as if

  • There are highly paid guys there who's job it is to cut the old tnt off the outside of the core, with a how wire cutter. If it all goes bad,you'd never know what happened.

    • There are highly paid guys there who's job it is to cut the old tnt off the outside of the core, with a how wire cutter. If it all goes bad,you'd never know what happened.

      Given TFA they better stay home then. Last thing they want is to get fired.

    • There are highly paid guys there who's job it is to cut the old tnt off the outside of the core, with a how wire cutter. If it all goes bad,you'd never know what happened.

      Yes but it never goes bad does it?

      That's because it's actually the best job in the world - because how you do it is absolutely not subjective.

      There is no boss saying you should have done something differently because doing anything other than the right thing probably kills him too. There is a way to do it and everyone knows that way and i

      • The only downside is monotony...

        There's also that little problem of FLKs, but we don't talk about that...

      • I'm not sure money is really a downside. The job might not pay great, but most government jobs have pretty good benefits and pensions and job security. You might make less than somewhere else but you can have a better long-term financial plan.

    • cut the old tnt off the outside of the core

      It is not TNT. It is paraffin-stabilized RDX, also known as hexogen.

      RDX is more powerful than TNT but also more stable. You can literally set it on fire, and it will explode.

      RDX is the explosive in C-4 plastique and Semtex.

      Torpex, a blend of RDX, TNT, and powdered aluminum, was used for carpet bombing in WW2.

      RDX [wikipedia.org]

  • The new normal.

  • If the facility was burnt to the ground, would it actually set off the nukes?
  • no money for that state until they learn how to vote properly.

    • no money for that state until they learn how to vote properly.

      Err....I don't think Texas really needs your money.

      They seem to do just find down there for the most part.

  • ...Stable Genius recommended.

  • There shouldn't even be a Nuclear Weapons plant in the US. Big f-ing hypocrites pointing fingers at others for wanting to create their own nukes, but keeps making and expanding its own arsenal. The US is one of the biggest threats to this world, as they are still the only ones who killed hundreds of thousands innocent people with their atomic bombs, even though they already knew Japan was going to surrender. I hope the plant goes up in flames and has a nuclear fallout towards some of the bigger cities. Serv

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