Pantex: The Place Where Kimmet Was
"Hey Puck, when did the Colonel get back from pantex?" Ch. 29 1/3, @ 16:08
At first blush, I thought that it was PANTEX or PANT-EX. -EX is a common suffix for Exercise. like JLFEX (Joint Live Fire Exercise) or CLFEX (Combined Live Fire Exercise). I figured it was some kind of training exercise out in the Box that he was observing.
But then I figured I'd look it up to see what it was. In 20 years in the service, I'd never heard of a PANTEX.
Well, I think there might be a problem:
Quote:
U.S. D.O.E. Pantex Plant. Pantex Plant is America's only nuclear weapons assembly and disassembly facility. Located on the high plains of the Texas panhandle, 17 miles northeast of Amarillo, Pantex is centered on a 16,000-acre site just north of US Hwy 60 in Carson County.
That's right. Pantex is a nuclear weapons assembly and disassembly facility.
I think that with the loss of contact with the East Coast, notably the Pentagon, the White House The National Command Authority or anyone that outranks him for that matter, the Colonel just might have some plans of his own.
Hot and glowy plans that involve fallout, 10,000 years of radioactivity and zombies with two heads and three legs.
NEW (Accidental) connection.
I was reading on SlashDot about the recently returned SpaceX Dragon Capsuleand clicked through to learn more about their forthcoming Grasshopper Reusable Launch Vehicle.
One thing lead to another and I found my self reading a PDF titled "Draft Environmental Assessment for Issuing an Experimental Permit to SpaceX for Operation of the Grasshopper Vehicle at the McGregor Test Site, Texas." Whatever, right? Checkout page 14, it shows a satellite image of the McGregor Test Site. For a closer look, I pulled it up on Google Maps.
Apparently those hexagonal lozenge sections are launch test complexes. Just like the ones just outside the Pantex main facility.
I'm going to assume that these are Cold War era AEC/DOE standardized testing facilities and are scattered all over the country. Pantex also, so far as I know isn't just dismantling warheads, they are also part of the modernization program. The US arsenal is getting smaller but the remainders are getting upgraded. Makes sense for Pantex to have a rocket testing facility nearby.
So maybe, just maybe, Kimmet isn't after JUST a Nuclear Device, he could also be after launch vehicle parts.