Nuclear Materials Missing - Energy Department, too Big to Fail?

Dept of Energy cannot account for nuclear materials. Wait. Aren't they too big to fail?

In a must-read article on Atlas Shrugs, Pamela Geller makes the convincing case that - Something of Historic Proportion is Happening.  Now we learn that nuclear material, lots of it, is unaccounted for - missing.  Could this be yet another clue to whatever the something is that clearly is happening?

Is there a connection between missing nuclear material and the something that someone may be planning for us?

The question begs a serious response, especially in light of so many causes for alarm.

• Witness the blatant disregard for our constitution that the majority of our so-called representatives in Washington, by their actions, display with impunity. Or, did I miss the right to force bailouts on banks in my last read of the constitution?
• Consider assaults on our individual rights. Or, does anybody really believe that the euphemistically named Fairness Doctrine is actually about fairness?
• Study what's being discussed in the name of Stimulus. See if you can correlate line items or earmarks in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to those few enumerated powers we grant to our Federal Government in our Constitution.
• Ponder the power plays. Why would a bill to provide payback and power to unions bear the oxymoronic title - "Employee Free Choice Act" ? Does a ruse by any name smell the same? Why again is the White House taking control of the Census?
• Suspect the secrecy. I learned of the missing nuclear materials in an article on Government Executive; I also found note of it in Homeland Security Today. Perhaps some details should not be made public. Still, where was the MSM on this story?

Even if there were no cause for alarm, it would be naive to ignore the possible connection between unaccounted for nuclear materials and those who might use them to do harm. You don't have to be paranoid or believe in conspiracy theories to make this connection. But who can we trust to get to ground truth and protect us, without misusing this as an opportunity to scare us out of liberty? What say the party of change? Will you act now to secure our nuclear material, locate lost materials, and protect us against the threat of its misuse? Or, will you wait for the next audit report?
Certainly, protecting us from the threat of nuclear materials lost in our own country is a more legitimate use of federal funds than are so many projects in the so-called stimulus bill. But, will this administration allocate resources to our protection from this threat? Or will doling out funds on wetlands for mice, favors for unions, Acorns, or Planned Parenthood organizations take priority? These are the priorities of looters; they are misplaced priorities that may stand in the way of our very survival. How cruel is that?
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Excerpts from Katherine M. Peters report in Government Executive (emphasis mine):

A number of institutions with licenses to hold nuclear material reported ... that the amount of material they held was less than agency records indicated.
.... rather than investigating ... Energy officials wrote off significant quantities of nuclear material from the department's inventory records. ... the quantities written off were significant ... potentially pose serious health hazards."
... Energy could not accurately account for the quantities and locations of nuclear material at 15 out of 40, or 37 percent, of facilities reviewed. The materials written off included 20,580 grams of enriched uranium, 45 grams of plutonium, 5,001 kilograms of normal uranium and 189,139 kilograms of depleted uranium.

Noteworthy excerpts from comments about this article.

69839 ... why does Congress NEVER question the operating model of the national laboratories? ... They are not government employees! They are never held accountable because of the billions of dollars they bring to their districts. Of the roughly 120,000 employees of DOE, about 100,000 are contractors. ... Allen Posted February 24, 2009 10:35 AM

69798 Good thing they use metrics, because the depleted uranium doesn't sound so bad, like 208 tons would. How do you misplace 208 tons of something? There's a bigger question here. Why are they concerned about depleted uranium if it is harmless? That's what the Pentagon, VA, and manufacturer of hardened munitions have been telling our troops and veterans who have Gulf War Syndrome, cancer, and leukemia. Depleted uranium is definitely a unique element; it becomes non lethal in the presence of disability claims. All sarcasm aside, look up Iraqi birth defects for a look at what those missing 208 tons can do. Anthony Weishar Posted February 24, 2009 7:14 AM

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