Nuclear security

Nuclear weapons mess: we’re all in it together but don’t know how to get out alive

You can make a nuclear explosion yielding at least the equivalent of hundreds of tons of TNT simply by dropping one subcritical piece of a bomb core onto another by hand. For that reason, bomb-core storage facilities depend on perimeter defense — on keeping the bad guys out of the building. Sister Megan Rice and her two accomplices had no intention of trying to breach the storage building’s formidable defenses — it is, so its guardians claim, one of the most secure buildings in the world — but the fact that they were able to stand next to it and fling baby bottles full of blood onto its walls indicates that its very physical security had made its guards complacent. They simply couldn’t imagine anyone getting past perimeter security; they actually reset their alarms after the three protesters set them off, assuming that an animal had tripped them.