this post was submitted on 29 Feb 2024
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Several wildfires are scorching the Texas panhandle with thousands evacuated

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.

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[–] gibmiser@lemmy.world 84 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Sounds like climate change is a national security threat. Bring on the DOD spending!

[–] Neato@ttrpg.network 29 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Welp, we've bombed the fires. it didn't really put them out but it completely cleared all land of any vegetation. So...win, I guess?

[–] Badabinski@kbin.social 12 points 8 months ago

You joke, but using air dropped bombs to put out fires is a tactic that's been used for quite a while. probably not the best thing to do next to a site with nuclear materials on-hand, but it's absolutely been done before.

[–] Nurse_Robot@lemmy.world 39 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Well that's fucking alarming. For all of the money the DoD vacuums up, they can't handle a wildfire near a nuclear weapons factory where they should absolutely expect a wildfire? What's next, a California nuke factory that wasn't built to withstand earthquakes?

[–] protist@mander.xyz 44 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Someone only read the headline...

"We have evacuated our personnel, non-essential personnel from the site, just in an abundance of caution,” Laef Pendergraft, a spokesperson for National Nuclear Security Administration’s Production Office at Pantex, said during a news conference on Tuesday night.

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.”

Pantex re-opened and resumed operations as normal on Wednesday morning.

Also all of this is run by the Department of Energy, not Defense

[–] DarkMessiah@lemmy.world 4 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Yeah, for some god forsaken reason, nuclear bombs fall under the jurisdiction of the government’s power plant branch, rather than the military one.

[–] protist@mander.xyz 14 points 8 months ago

The reason is because DOE contains all of the nuclear experts, since they also regulate nuclear power production

[–] starman2112@sh.itjust.works 8 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)
[–] DarkMessiah@lemmy.world 2 points 8 months ago

I mean, true. It’s just a little weird that a bunch of people whose job it is to keep things from exploding also have the job of making things that explode.

[–] EdibleFriend@lemmy.world 21 points 8 months ago (1 children)

THE FREAKIN FIRE HAS A NUKE

[–] aeronmelon@lemmy.world 13 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Convince Texas that the fire has oil so they invade the fire.

[–] EdibleFriend@lemmy.world 12 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Or we can convince then the fire is trans and they might just go fucking put it out.

[–] TragicNotCute@lemmy.world 2 points 8 months ago

We’ve banned fires now. Problem solved.

[–] Pistcow@lemm.ee 19 points 8 months ago

Still winter. Can't wait for summer!

[–] jobby 18 points 8 months ago

QUICK! EVERYONE!!! GO ON VACATION TO CANCUN!!!

[–] werefreeatlast@lemmy.world 10 points 8 months ago

Oh this is fine.

[–] BruceTwarzen@kbin.social 8 points 8 months ago

Is it scorching season already?

[–] tyler@programming.dev 3 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Wait what. We still are producing nuclear weapons? I thought we had agreed not to do that.

[–] Broken_Monitor@lemmy.world 19 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Read the article. It tells you they havent produced one since 1991

[–] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 3 points 8 months ago (3 children)

Then what the fuck are they doing in there?

[–] nymwit@lemm.ee 17 points 8 months ago

Maintenance and disassembly are the other things listed. Also apparently ongoing remediation of contaminated perched groundwater, possibly soil work.

[–] protist@mander.xyz 15 points 8 months ago

They do maintenance on existing weapons, which require regular maintenance

[–] Broken_Monitor@lemmy.world 8 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Well, there’s the other part where they dismantle them.

[–] CaptainSpaceman@lemmy.world 3 points 8 months ago

Ans then reassemble?

[–] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 1 points 8 months ago (3 children)
[–] MotoAsh@lemmy.world 5 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Yes? The US wanted to downsize after the cold war to save on maintenance. Not give up nukes entirely. Why the HELL would the US give up nukes entirely? At what point in US history have we ever given up a game changer like nuclear deterrance (as dumb as it is, war itself is dumb)?

[–] mosiacmango@lemm.ee 4 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

What, you think taking apart nuclear missiles is something you do fast?

We have like 3000 of them that are still active as well that this company maintaines too.

[–] Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 8 months ago

Government work (contracted or otherwise) is sloooooow

[–] tyler@programming.dev 1 points 8 months ago

In the literal description of the post it says “assembles”.

[–] Pat_Riot 2 points 8 months ago

Not one Windy Deuce joke? Really Lemmy y'all disappointed me this time.

[–] RagingRobot@lemmy.world 2 points 8 months ago

So that's where they make them!

[–] tsonfeir@lemm.ee 2 points 8 months ago

Texas is a joke.