Things I didn’t need to know, nuclear weapons edition

Why do I get the feeling we’ve come closer to a Bad Thing happening with our nuclear weapons a lot more often than most of us know? Oh, maybe it’s the revelation that the men hired to transport them get drunk on the job:

The Energy Department’s assistant inspector general, Sandra D. Bruce, said her office reviewed 16 alcohol-related incidents involving agents, candidate-agents and others from the government’s Office of Secure Transportation between 2007 through 2009.

The memorandum said the incidents “indicate a potential vulnerability” in what it described as a “critical national security mission.”

The findings were detailed in a memorandum dated Nov. 17, which said that when agents had drunk alcohol overnight after checking into local hotels, their trucks were in “safe harbor” status.

(…)

The document said the agents take part in a 21-week training course designed to help them prevent “the theft, sabotage or takeover of protected materials by unauthorized persons.”

They were also meant to meet the “highest standards of reliability and physical and mental suitability,” it added.

However, under a section headed “Alcohol-Related Incidents,” the memorandum said “the number of alcohol-related incidents occurring over the last three years suggests that further action may be needed.”

“May be needed??”

After reading that, I think I may need a drink…

Via Legal Insurrection.

(Crossposted at Public Secrets)