Good Government - National Nuclear Safety Administration

It's been truly fascinating to watch Obama on his way to becoming one of the most successful foreign policy presidents this country has ever seen. Yesterday we learned about a foiled plot to assassinate foreign diplomats in the U.S. Its an example of how often those successes are about things that DIDN'T happen due to the excellent work being done by people in this administration. But some of the work is so successful that we don't ever hear about it. Such is the case with the National Nuclear Safety Administration (NNSA).

One of the promises President Obama made (and not many people paid attention to) was that we would secure all vulnerable nuclear material around the world within four years. The agency that is tasked with fulfilling that promise is the NNSA.

Last December, Rachel Maddow was one of the only people in the media who reported that, after two years, NNSA was actually on track to reach that goal. And yesterday, she had an update about some ongoing successes.

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She's reporting that U.S. trained law enforcement officials in Moldova have uncovered and are shutting down a criminal group that was trying to sell enough enriched uranium to make a nuclear bomb. In addition, NNSA has recently recovered and disposed more than 72 pounds of weapons-grade uranium from Kazakhstan.

This is what the NNSA does every single day. This is what your government is doing. In the last year and a half alone, the NNSA has down-blended more than 55,000 kilograms of nuclear material — enough to build over 2,000 nuclear weapons. They are the ones keeping this material off the nuclear black market, for the world and for America. They are the ones keeping this stuff out of the hands of terrorists who are actively trying to get it and have millions of dollars to spend to do it. That is the way it is supposed to work.

Next time you hear somebody talking smack about the government, about the whole idea of government doing something useful, you have your rejoinder. These are your tax dollars at work, thank God.

Thank you NNSA and thank you Obama administration for making this a priority...even when no one is noticing.