Following a goof that sent a B-52 laden with nuclear missiles across the country, the Minot Air Force base commander has set a goal of zero tolerance.

Not a nuke will be moved at the base without Col. Joel Westa's knowledge.

"Our goal in this line of work is not to make errors - our goal is perfection," Westa said. "It's one of those missions where the tolerance is very low for error; in fact, it's zero."

Westa said he is notified in advance of any changes in activity to the base's arsenal, and he personally oversees many of the operations involving the movement of nuclear weapons.

He wants no surprises like the one last August, when a B-52 bomber was mistakenly armed with six nuclear-tipped cruise missiles in Minot and flown to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana.

The military called it an "unacceptable mistake."

"Procedures that were in place weren't followed," Westa said. Now, he said, "more robust" policies are in place to verify the weapons' location.

Westa is ready to guarantee that no such breach of weapons handling will happen under his - or future - commands at the Minot base.

That promise is troubling to Hans Kristensen of the Federation of American Scientists, a Washington, D.C.-based group opposed to the development of nuclear weapons.

"It's nice that he's that confident, but for the purpose of safety, that's a little worrisome," Kristensen said. "All of our nuclear history tells us that these things will continue to happen."

Kristensen called the August flight the biggest nuclear blunder by the military at least since the Cold War, and an "enormous embarrassment to the United States."

The Minot wing was decertified from its wartime mission and cost Westa's predecessor, Col. Bruce Emig, his command. Emig had been commander of the base for only a couple of months when the incident happened. Westa's appointment was announced last October.

Some 65 airmen were disciplined and barred from handling nuclear weapons, the military said.

"It certainly was not our brightest, shining moment," said Westa, 50, who flew combat missions in B-52 bombers during Desert Storm and holds master's degrees in music and military arts.

Westa said the base is working to get recertified in handling of nuclear weapons. A Jan. 23 inspection has been delayed for at least a few months while airmen continue to train on weapons handling procedures. Some senior airmen had been brought in to replace those who were sanctioned following the incident, Westa said.

"We are now in the process of training our folks," Westa said. "It takes a long time for these guys to get experience … everyone is working harder to get back on step."

The Minot base, home to about 4,800 active duty military personnel, is the command center for 150 Minuteman III missiles, sunk in hardened silos, and is one of two B-52 bomber bases in the country.

The 91st Space Wing at the Minot base, which oversees Minuteman III missiles, did "phenomenal" at its weapons-handling inspection last month, Westa said.

"As long as you have nukes, you have to expect the unexpected," said Kristensen, whose organization was founded by physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer and other creators of the original atom bomb.

Kristensen said the August incident has hurt credibility with other nations - especially those with nuclear weapons - when the U.S "mistakenly has nukes dangling under the wings of bombers."

Though the military has publicly acknowledged the mistake, it has yet to classify its severity. An Air Force official in Washington, D.C., speaking on condition of anonymity, said the classification may never be made public.

"If it isn't classified, it doesn't show up as a lesson learned," Kristensen said. "Does that mean there are other significant incidents that have happened that we don't know about?"

Westa said the Minot base's decertification has not hurt the Air Force's warfighting capabilities, nor does it hurt the future of the North Dakota base.

"Morale is high - folks have their heads up and their chests out," Westa said. "Folks are proud of what we do here."