US Releases Secret List of Nuclear Sites Accidentally

Mickey · **Joined:** Sun Aug 03, 2008 12:04 am **Posts:** 584

Ever ask yourself, "How do things like this happen?" :roll:

Quote:

U.S. Releases Secret List of Nuclear Sites Accidentally

6-3-09

The federal government mistakenly made public a 266-page report, its pages marked “highly confidential,” that gives detailed information about hundreds of the nation’s civilian nuclear sites and programs, including maps showing the precise locations of stockpiles of fuel for nuclear weapons.

The publication of the document was revealed Monday in an online newsletter devoted to issues of federal secrecy. That set off a debate among nuclear experts about what dangers, if any, the disclosures posed. It also prompted a flurry of investigations in Washington into why the document had been made public.

On Tuesday evening, after inquiries from The New York Times, the document was withdrawn from a Government Printing Office Web site.

Several nuclear experts argued that any dangers from the disclosure were minimal, given that the general outlines of the most sensitive information were already known publicly.

“These screw-ups happen,” said John M. Deutch, a former director of central intelligence and deputy secretary of defense who is now a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “It’s going further than I would have gone but doesn’t look like a serious breach.”

But David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security, a private group in Washington that tracks nuclear proliferation, said information that shows where nuclear fuels are stored “can provide thieves or terrorists inside information that can help them seize the material, which is why that kind of data is not given out.”.....

The document contains no military information about the nation’s stockpile of nuclear arms, or about the facilities and programs that guard such weapons. Rather, it presents what appears to be an exhaustive listing of the sites that make up the nation’s civilian nuclear complex, which stretches coast to coast and includes nuclear reactors and highly confidential sites at weapon laboratories......

One of the most serious disclosures appears to center on the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, which houses the Y-12 National Security Complex, a sprawling site ringed by barbed wire and armed guards. It calls itself the nation’s Fort Knox for highly enriched uranium, a main fuel of nuclear arms.

The report lists “Tube Vault 16, East Storage Array,” as a prospective site for nuclear inspection. It said the site, in Building 9720-5, contains highly enriched uranium for “long-term storage.”

An attached map shows the exact location of Tube Vault 16 along a hallway and its orientation in relation to geographic north, although not its location in the Y-12 complex.

Complete article here

Well, I certainly feel safer now. How about you? :mrgreen:

Roselyn · **Joined:** Thu Aug 07, 2008 6:57 am **Posts:** 1556

And with all that stuff floating through the air no one ties the rising cancer rate to the stockpiles of "long-term storage" facilities.

Let's just keep taxing the cigarette smokers. :roll:

Here's an example of the cover-up:

"State Workers to Pay Surcharge to Smoke"

"NASHVILLE (AP) ---- State employees are facing a $600 surcharge that goes into effect next year for everyone in the employee health system who smokes or has a smoker for a spouse.

The Tennessean reports state officials hope the surcharge will provide an incentive for employees who smoke.

Officials estimate that would save Tennessee an estimated $3,400 a year in lost productivity and smoking related health claims per worker.

To help smokers quit before the Jan. 1, 2010, deadline, the state will offer discounts on perscriptions and over-the-counter products like nicotine gum and patches starting May 1. "

The Real Logos · **Posted:** Wed Jun 03, 2009 8:59 am

Well, I think the chances that anyone can actually exploit that information range from incredibly slim to none.

But it was a bit sloppy.

The question of how we will dispose of the waste material from the nuclear power plants involved is probably a far more relevant question.

Pax!
8-)

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US Releases Secret List of Nuclear Sites Accidentally

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