Word: controller
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Chinese authorities have struggled for years to control mine disasters. Inspectors have forced the closure of small, illegal mines, but that has put more pressure on larger, more reputable operators, like the state-owned China National Coal Group, which co-owns the Wangjialing mine. And while the annual death totals have declined even as coal production increases, it will likely be years more before the annual total drops below 1,000. (See the top 10 news stories...
Uranium for Free For the past 14 years, U.S. teams like the one in Chile have been engaged in a race against terrorists to gain control of the global supply of HEU - the compound from which a nuclear bomb can be most easily fabricated. President Barack Obama has said preventing terrorists from obtaining an atomic weapon is his Administration's top national-security priority, and last year he vowed that the U.S. would secure all vulnerable nuclear material within four years. On April 12, in one of the year's most important international meetings, Obama will host more than...
...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 of kilograms of weapons-grade uranium in South Africa. The attackers gained access to the facility's control room and shot an emergency-services officer in the chest. They fled without making any effort to steal the nuclear material, and the reason for the break-in and the attackers' identity remain a mystery. "The break-in validated what we do. Current international security guidelines are woefully inadequate," Bieniawski...
...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. For a few heart-stopping seconds, it swung back and forth. The cranes groaned. "I don't like that sight," Bieniawski said. "Jesus, I don't like that sight...
...contracts with foreign governments, the NNSA gains title of the HEU at the exact moment that the crane's cables slacken and the container settles onto the ship. The crane operators regained control of the container, and a few moments later Chile no longer possessed a 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...