Classified Information Fail: US Gov’t posts list of nuclear sites online

Although the information was apparently available elsewhere, the US Government is still kind of embarassed by the accidental leak, which was marked “highly confidential safeguards sensitive.”

The 266-page document- intended for international nuclear inspectors- contained locations, maps and other helpful hints regarding nuclear fuel fabrication plants, nuclear research facilities and uranium storage. According to the AP, the leak was quickly spotted by “a newsletter focusing on government secrecy.” Well, at least someone’s keeping track…

From the AP article:

Steven Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientists’ government secrecy project, which distributed the document, said he was perplexed about all the attention surrounding the disclosure.

“Some people are painting this as a road map for terrorists, which it is not,” Aftergood said. “It is simply a listing of the numerous nuclear research sites and the programs that are under way. So it poses no security threat whatsoever.”

However, Energy Secretary Steven Chu admitted security was being tightened at one location of “great concern,” a storage facility for highly enriched uranium in Tennessee. You can rest easy on that one- a new high security warehouse is expected to be completed sometime next year.