revision
06-03-2009, 10:10 AM
US nuclear secrets accidentally leaked out?
Wed, 03 Jun 2009 05:02:34 GMT
http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=96858§ionid=3510203
Washington has published a document containing details of the precise whereabouts of hundreds of its nuclear sites as well as fuel storage areas for its nuclear weapons stockpiles, allegedly by accident.
The 266-page report marked "highly confidential" was released on Monday in an online newsletter for issues of federal secrecy, raising fears among nuclear experts who cited security hazards.
The report -- considered sensitive but not classified -- was supposed to be handed later this year to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as the US yields to closer inspections of its nuclear activity.
President Barack Obama had sent the document to Congress on May 5 for congressional review and possible revision, but the Government Printing Office subsequently posted the draft declaration on its website.
On its cover, the report attributes its publication to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, but the committee denied having published the paper and said it had no control over the publication.
Gary Somerset, a spokesman for the printing office, said it had "produced" the document "under normal operating procedures" but had removed it from its website pending further review.
Steven Aftergood, a security expert at the Federation of American Scientists in Washington, revealed the existence of the document on Monday in Secrecy News -- a newsletter he publishes on the web.
Although the document contains no military information about US nuclear arsenals or the facilities and programs that guard the nuclear weapons stockpiles in the country, Obama had advised that the information "shall be exempt from disclosure" under the Freedom of Information Act.
The transmittal letter is in line with the Additional Protocol of the IAEA, which allows the UN nuclear watchdog to pursue its investigations into factories, storage areas and laboratories beyond known nuclear sites.
The revealed document includes many particulars about nuclear programs and facilities at Los Alamos, Livermore and Sandia nuclear weapons laboratories, as well as dozens of other federal and private nuclear sites.
An attached map further illustrates the exact location of laboratories' tube vaults -- cylinders embedded in concrete with a capacity of up to 44 tons of highly enriched uranium in 200 tubes each.
A number of experts downplayed the dangers of the disclosure, arguing that the general outlines of the most sensitive information were already known publicly.
Others, however, expressed serious concerns that the disclosure of the sites where nuclear fuel is stored could provide thieves or terrorists with the information they need to seize the material.
Wed, 03 Jun 2009 05:02:34 GMT
http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=96858§ionid=3510203
Washington has published a document containing details of the precise whereabouts of hundreds of its nuclear sites as well as fuel storage areas for its nuclear weapons stockpiles, allegedly by accident.
The 266-page report marked "highly confidential" was released on Monday in an online newsletter for issues of federal secrecy, raising fears among nuclear experts who cited security hazards.
The report -- considered sensitive but not classified -- was supposed to be handed later this year to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as the US yields to closer inspections of its nuclear activity.
President Barack Obama had sent the document to Congress on May 5 for congressional review and possible revision, but the Government Printing Office subsequently posted the draft declaration on its website.
On its cover, the report attributes its publication to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, but the committee denied having published the paper and said it had no control over the publication.
Gary Somerset, a spokesman for the printing office, said it had "produced" the document "under normal operating procedures" but had removed it from its website pending further review.
Steven Aftergood, a security expert at the Federation of American Scientists in Washington, revealed the existence of the document on Monday in Secrecy News -- a newsletter he publishes on the web.
Although the document contains no military information about US nuclear arsenals or the facilities and programs that guard the nuclear weapons stockpiles in the country, Obama had advised that the information "shall be exempt from disclosure" under the Freedom of Information Act.
The transmittal letter is in line with the Additional Protocol of the IAEA, which allows the UN nuclear watchdog to pursue its investigations into factories, storage areas and laboratories beyond known nuclear sites.
The revealed document includes many particulars about nuclear programs and facilities at Los Alamos, Livermore and Sandia nuclear weapons laboratories, as well as dozens of other federal and private nuclear sites.
An attached map further illustrates the exact location of laboratories' tube vaults -- cylinders embedded in concrete with a capacity of up to 44 tons of highly enriched uranium in 200 tubes each.
A number of experts downplayed the dangers of the disclosure, arguing that the general outlines of the most sensitive information were already known publicly.
Others, however, expressed serious concerns that the disclosure of the sites where nuclear fuel is stored could provide thieves or terrorists with the information they need to seize the material.