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No Tolerance for Nuke Mistakes, Minot Chief Says
The commander of Minot Air Force Base, N.D., has set a zero-tolerance policy for errors involving atomic weapons, following the 2007 incident in which six nuclear-tipped missiles were mistakenly loaded onto an aircraft and flown to a base in Louisiana, the Associated Press reported Saturday (see GSN, Jan. 25). “Our goal in this line of work is not to make errors, our goal is perfection,” said Any changes in activity involving the base’s nuclear missiles must be cleared through Westa, who regularly is directly involved when weapons are moved. Following the August 2007 incident, the base has enacted “more robust” policies to ensure that weapons are not misplaced, Westa said. He said there would be no repeat mishaps during his tenure at “It’s nice that he’s confident, but for the purpose of safety, that’s a little worrisome,” said nuclear weapons expert Hans Kristensen of the Federation of American Scientists. “All of our nuclear history tells us that these things will continue to happen.” “As long as you have nukes, you have to expect the unexpected,” he added. The base is still preparing to be recertified for handling nuclear weapons. Training in correct procedures continues and some airmen have replaced The Air Force banned roughly 65 base personnel from handling nuclear weapons, AP reported. While the recertification inspection is not expected for several months, the base’s 91st Space Wing proved “phenomenal” during the December inspection of its handling of Minot’s 150 silo-based Minuteman 3 missiles, Westa said (see GSN, Jan. 7; James MacPherson, Associated Press/The Houma Courier, Feb. 2).
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