Joan Lunden Behind Closed Doors: Nuclear Emergency Search Team

we are 100 miles north of Albuquerque at the Los Alamos National Laboratories it is here that America's weapons designers experiment with plutonium radioactive poison the heart of a nuclear bomb Los Alamos is one of the most highly guarded facilities in the world for more than 50 years now ever since World War two s Manhattan Project Los Alamos has been ground zero of America's nuclear weapons industry yes I'm Joan Lunden these are some of the tightest closed doors our government has gained top clearance here means up to one year of intensive background checks plus drug and alcohol tests and a detailed scrutiny of your personal finances and even with clearance physical entry into Los Alamos is no less stringent security is so strict we cannot even mention the date or the exact location within the facility where we were allowed to see weapons-grade materials and security is only the first concern next a one-hour detailed safety briefing then have to be and escorted into the heart of the top-secret lab by the head of the nuclear weapons program Admiral Charles beers I was issued protective clothing an anti contamination jumpsuit special gloves and three separate radiation detectors while I suited up technicians carefully calibrated their radiation meters and then they checked a cask holding a ball of weapons-grade plutonium to make sure there was no leakage finally I was ready the first journalist to ever be allowed to handle this rare element inside this stainless steel container is 10 pounds of plutonium it is one of the most deadly elements known to mankind it is the element that makes a bomb go nuclear I can feel the heat coming right through the stainless steel now under control conditions like this I'm told it's relatively harmless but it's pure form if you were to ingest or inhale a tiny speck smaller than the head of a pin you would die acquiring plutonium from within the United States is virtually impossible but with the breakup and de nuking of the Soviet Union an international black-market and nuclear materials is developing with possibly ominous results here at home the massive destruction of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City last April and the February 1993 bombing of New York's World Trade Center have brought the specter of terrorism to center stage in America as chilling as these events were authorities fear that they may just be a preamble to the ultimate horror nuclear materials in the hands of terrorists capable of building a bomb and using it to counter this threat the Department of Energy has created nest the nuclear emergency search team America's nuclear bomb squad they're physicists and engineers weapon designers they're the people that actually built the nuclear weapons program for the United States those are the people that volunteer to go out and do this job basically terminate the nuclear terrorists to prepare for the day everyone hopes will never come the government stage is a full-scale multimillion-dollar urban war game every seven or eight years in a major city to test their readiness our government has secretly planted a device in the metropolitan New Orleans area that is to look feel and act like a nuclear bomb the mission to detect disarm and destroy the simulated weapon the planning for this highly classified operation codenamed Mirage gold began two and a half years ago and culminated in New Orleans with a call to the FBI an informant had infiltrated a terrorist organization that tip led the FBI right here to this abandoned house right next to the New Orleans Airport they began a stakeout and at 3:30 a.m. it became clear that that informants life was in danger and then a full-scale assault was ordered the assault of the house was with real bullets placed in the house were targets of innocent people so the hostage rescue team has to make an instantaneous decision shoot at don't shoot the hostage got out alive in six subjects were killed a search of the house and an interview with the hostage turned up some frightening information the terrorists had a nuclear bomb hidden somewhere in the city what's more it was programmed to detonate in three days the FBI immediately called in nest the FBI is the lead agency but we need them they have the equipment they have the know-how to the smartest people in the world that he's matter one of people to get their gear on their plane and come to a scene within four hours we want to be able to set up at a remote location where they don't have the necessary stuff the telephones and the water and that kind of stuff able to live and exist in that thing on an individual basis and then a coordinated basis between the department energy the FBI and Department offense and any other federal agencies that are involved in the process they quickly set up headquarters in an abandoned warehouse on the fringe of the city team members arrive in nondescript rental cars they must work in complete secrecy not only to avoid panicking the public but to keep the terrace in the dark as well if they don't know we know then we have the upper hand the success or failure the operation will depend in large part on intelligence gathered and fed in by the FBI we're feeding them intelligence in the form of clues we also feed them we feed them a lot of problems we feed them a lot of phone calls that they would rather not receive from my rate people or from or from people who are maybe people furnishing them red herring information even Mirage dolls what this is the Tactical Operations Center the command post where the players in this nuclear scavenger hunt collect and analyze intelligence and track the progress of the search all we have is a name a mr. Asimov Andre V Asimov we have no physical description we do have a physical description okay five feet five green eyes brown hair ordinary-looking rental vans are turned in a state-of-the-art mobile radiation detectors the new kitten in the city though not a real bomb has been designed to emanate the same kind of radioactive signature as the real thing a signature that can be detected by these rolling Geiger counters based on intelligence reports the electronic surveillance bands are now sweeping selected areas of New Orleans using Defense Department Global Positioning satellites each vans position is monitored instantaneously at the command center this gives you what the team is where they are currently how fast they're going to search places the vans can't nest teams on foot use radiation detectors disguised as ordinary briefcases small computer voice chips in the detectors report their findings by wireless earphones value our fellow 5:6 this lets the undercover searchers hear what the detectors find without tipping anyone else off this can be critical when searching heavily populated potential targets like airports or sports facilities we just got some Intel we want you to go to the Superdome and you'll start searching the Superdome the cover store you'll use if you're approached by anyone other than your contacts is that you're there just conducting a security check it is day three and intelligence reports have led the nest teams here to the high profile Louisiana Superdome they will search every corner of this entire facility including each of the 132 Super boxes and all 76,000 seats while each of the undercover teams fans out through the huge complex behind closed doors a temporary command post is established this area right here is our security office they check the stands the field the bathrooms every inch of the dome but turn up nothing it is now only 24 hours until the simulated nuclear bomb levels New Orleans on Bourbon Street revelers party on unaware of the terrors drama taking place around them while most of the nest team concentrates on finding the bomb another group prepares for what happens if the bomb goes off nest meteorologists release weather balloons to tracked wind-borne fallout patterns in case evacuation is called for time is running out the more than 1,000 people who are searching for the nuclear bomber exhausted I'm getting two hours sleep here two hours sleep there and running out of leads will contact you upon arrival at our destination we've searched the Superdome we've searched parking lots housing projects high-rise facilities finally in the early morning hours of the last day the nest team gets a major break Trimble hang tight I just got a new fix on the vehicle that you're looking for the FBI has gotten intelligence that points to a location somewhere near a runway search teams are sent out to the three major airports in the New Orleans area near the Belle chase Naval Air Station one of the vans picks up the radiation signature they've been searching for we've got significant radiation levels the runway which is two trailers in that area they have gotten themselves in the vicinity and by in the vicinity I mean within a hundred yards it's the moment everyone's been waiting for and within minutes a convoy of nest scientists Department of Defense explosive experts and engineers are deployed to Ground Zero this is what they find inside the shed a simulated nuclear bomb with the clock and the bomb ticking away nest calls in the army Elite explosive ordnance disposal unit their first job get through any booby traps are alarmed so nests physicists can enter the shed and analyze what they have they need to identify it make sure that it is an improvised nuclear device with special nuclear material lutonium or uranium from then on we determine the best way to disable it or disarm it they know that they've got that technical expertise that no one else has to do something that no one else is probably willing to do with the booby traps neutralized the nest team visually inspects the device then performs a series of tests including photos and x-rays to determine exactly what the bomb squad will need to dismantle the explosive the shed is surrounded with a three-story tent filled with a special dense foam designed to capture and contain any radioactive particles that might escape for national security reasons we won't show the actual device or the Diagnostics used to disable it but after being fully briefed by nest scientists the explosive experts wearing environmental isolation suits descend into the foam working virtually in the blind I think would be very difficult for the average person to conceive of being totally vaporized instantaneously if you essentially make the wrong move it's going to come down to one moment there's a man there's a wire do you cut it don't you that's that moment like you remove all distractors you do the procedure that is called for that you decided upon you can't do this business and be nervous in the service finally they emerge disabling the nuke less than 30 minutes before it was set to explode boils down to a human life at stake and if there's human life at stake I will go in and put my life on the line to save lives and I believe that sometime in the future we're gonna face one of these situations for real and we want to be as prepared as we can

Channel: JoanLunden

Views: 6,450

Rating: 5 out of 5

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Id: 4V-57Wxsms0

Length: 13min 13sec (793 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 28 2016