Word: bieniawski
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Dates: during 2010-2010
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...Bieniawski says his mission is to help overcome these obstacles by "schmoozing for my country," at which he is pretty good. (Once, he sweet-talked leaders from an African nation with HEU stocks by calling on their shared African heritage; although raised and educated in America, he was born to white parents in South Africa.) When he is unable to convince or pay countries to give up their HEU, Bieniawski offers to upgrade security around their material. That mission gained urgency in November 2007, when two teams of armed attackers stormed Pelindaba, a supposedly secure facility that houses hundreds...
...scientist of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, says a group of terrorists in possession of HEU could build an atom bomb using readily available hardware at a cost of around $2 million; if detonated in a city, such a bomb could kill hundreds of thousands. In Chile, I asked Bieniawski if he felt confident that al-Qaeda was still pursuing nuclear weapons rather than concentrating on struggles in Afghanistan and Pakistan. "The worst day of my week is Friday," he said. "Every Friday I receive a one-hour intelligence briefing, and I come away sobered. I assure you, the threat...
...agency had decided to split up the material so that neither ship would carry enough HEU for an atom bomb. But as long as the HEU remained on land, it was vulnerable. About a dozen dockworkers moved freely among the containers. Two of the three bottles of Champagne Bieniawski had taken along for postshipment celebrations were stolen. By 9:45 a.m., the final shipping container was ready to load onto the first ship. As it hoisted the container into the air, one of the cranes malfunctioned, sending the container hurtling out of control, yards above the deck...
...bomb's worth of HEU. In the bright morning sunshine, the first ship sailed out of the harbor, a Chilean gunboat darting in front of it like a little duckling. Onshore, the group piled back into the embassy van, and soon the remaining bottle of Champagne was uncorked. As Bieniawski slapped backs and offered high fives, his deputy remained quiet. Chuck Messick, a Navy man, has worked on the HEU-retrieval program since its inception in 1996. The HEU, he reminded anyone who would listen, still had to find safe passage through the Panama Canal and be safely unloaded...
Correction: The original version of this story said that Andrew Bieniawski and his team had dinner with the U.S. Ambassador the evening before the earthquake. The U.S. Ambassador was supposed to be the host of the dinner but pulled out at the last minute. The team dined with Chilean nuclear agency officials...