Season Two Research Files
Episode Fifteen
10:00pm-11:00pm
NUCLEAR EMERGENCY SUPPORT TEAM
In 1974, the government suspected that a nuclear weapon had been hidden in Boston. Though the initial alarm was false, a stumbling response to the threat convinced U.S. authorities that they needed a better plan. Thus, the N.E.S.T. was established to provide technical assistance to a number of agencies for searches, diagnostics and "render safe" procedures in nuclear or radiological incidents. N.E.S.T., which now falls under the jurisdiction of the Department of Energy and accounts for about half of the agency's nuclear emergency response budget, is a sort of volunteer fire department for the atomic age. Virtually all of its approximately 1,000 members have other jobs within the U.S. nuclear weapons establishment. They are the people who know the most about such weapons -- nuclear physicists, engineers, chemists and experts in conventional explosives. They are also on 24-hour call at all times, and can respond to a nuclear threat anywhere in America within 4 hours.
The team utilizes a computer at Lawrence Livermore National Lab in California loaded with thousands of pages of publicly available nuclear-weapons data culled from newspaper articles to spy novels. N.E.S.T. compares the text of extortionist phone calls and notes to this information to see if presumed terrorists are credible. Since September 11th, N.E.S.T. has stepped up its operations. The teams routinely scan the landscape with invisible beams from helicopters to detect radioactive elements of a terrorist's nuclear bomb. N.E.S.T. squads also drive around urban areas in vans known as "Hot Spot Mobile Labs," armed with instruments that sniff for radiation emissions. Other teams are equipped with backpacks, briefcases and beer coolers that hold smaller detectors. They partake in random, weekly search missions in different cities, focusing on ports, warehouse districts, and other locations where a smuggled weapon might be housed.
For dismantling, N.E.S.T. uses X-rays, infrared sensors, and other devices to try to understand the necessary disablement. A 30mm cannon can blow the device apart if the team deems that safe. Liquid nitrogen can be used to freeze detonator electronics. N.E.S.T. also has a large tent that can be erected over a suspected bomb, and then pumped full of foam. Moon-suited technicians blow up the high explosives that surround the fissile "pit" of nuclear weapons. Reportedly, they also use a high-speed liquid abrasive cutter to slice into suspected bombs because sparks from a metallic saw could set off a nuclear detonation.
< back