WASHINGTON (AP) - The government accidentally posted on the Internet a list of all civilian nuclear sites and their activities in the United States.

The 266-page document was published on May 6 as a transmission from President Barack Obama to the U.S. Congress. According to the document, the list was required by law and will be provided to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Some of the pages are marked "highly confidential safeguards sensitive."

While there is security at the facilities, the list could presumably be useful for terrorists or anyone else who would like to harm the United States.

The publication of the list was first reported in an online secrecy newsletter Monday.

The document details the location of the nuclear sites and what is being done there.

For instance, there are nuclear reactors at the Westinghouse Electric Company in Pittsburgh, Pa. This facility is currently working on research into what happens when there are accidents with the nuclear reactors. The project started in 2006 and is expected to end in 2012, according to the document.

The document was posted on the Government Printing Office Web site, and has since been removed.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090603/D98J6BAG0.html

WASHINGTON (AP) - The government accidentally posted on the Internet a list of all civilian nuclear sites and their activities in the United States.

The 266-page document was published on May 6 as a transmission from President Barack Obama to the U.S. Congress. According to the document, the list was required by law and will be provided to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Some of the pages are marked "highly confidential safeguards sensitive."

While there is security at the facilities, the list could presumably be useful for terrorists or anyone else who would like to harm the United States.

The publication of the list was first reported in an online secrecy newsletter Monday.

The document details the location of the nuclear sites and what is being done there.

For instance, there are nuclear reactors at the Westinghouse Electric Company in Pittsburgh, Pa. This facility is currently working on research into what happens when there are accidents with the nuclear reactors. The project started in 2006 and is expected to end in 2012, according to the document.

The document was posted on the Government Printing Office Web site, and has since been removed.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090603/D98J6BAG0.html



This information is hardly confidential.  One can easily find the location of all but Top Secret government nuclear project sites on the web.

At my company's offices we have a publically available map of the world which shows every nuclear power plant, its locatiuon, basic technology, who made it, date of commisioning, and power output.  It is a map available from a supplier to the nuclear industry.

And to the absolute best of my knowledge, Westinghouse Electric Company does not operate any nuclear reactors in Pittsburgh.  It has a large workforce there at its headquarters, but alas no nuclear reactor.  Westinghouse used to operate a reactor at its Waltz Mill location about 20 miles away, but it was decommisioned, removed, and completely environmentally cleaned up years ago.

Westinghouse used to manage the Bettis Naval Power Lab outside of Pittsburgh but that is no longer a Westinghouse program.  It is run by Bechtel Corporation as a contractor to the US Government.

There are fully 107 commercial nuclear reactors operating in the United States today and their locations are hardly a secret.  And nearly all University reactors (other than "black programs") are well-known.


The news story is "much ado about nothing".

The news story is "much ado about nothing".


I agree with you.

Most "Nuke Sites" are well known.  Normally the only question is if it is still "active" or not.  And this is because of the Government's own policies.

I guarded Nuke weapons during my first enlistment.  And we had a standard reply if asked if our base had nukes:

We can neither confirm, nor deny the presence of nuclear weapons on XYZ Naval Base."

The funny thing is, the weapons were all removed in 1984, prior to the US Olympics.  But we continues to use that phrase for the next 2 years.  There were protests fairly often at the bast, but the weapons were removed because of the Olympics.  Plus the urban sprawl of recent decades had made my base change from "edge of nowhere" to being surrounded by LA.

Finally in 1986 the Navy decided to fess up and admit the weapons were gone.  It was during a big protest, and the protestors were cheering and crying.  One of them told the press "The people have spoken.  We shouted long and loud enough, and finally the Navy was forced to listen to us."

We all laughed at them and their antics.  They had done nothing, the decision was made for reasons totally unrelated to any protests.

Of course, the base continued for at least another decade to work on nuclear missiles, they were simply no longer stored there.  8)

If terrorists really wanted to make a mess, they'd nail one of those 45-year-old nuke plants with the dome rusting out and Homer Simpson asleep at the switch.
::)

If terrorists really wanted to make a mess, they'd nail one of those 45-year-old nuke plants with the dome rusting out and Homer Simpson asleep at the switch.
::)


Hey, leave the Russians alone!

If they did it in the States, it'd look like the cover of the Beastie Boys' Licenced to Ill.

Your mSv of nuke humor for today:

Engineer 1: "Dude, you realize if this quadruple-redundant safety system design ever fails catastrophically, it'll set the nuclear power industry back 50 years!"
Engineer 2: "You mean we'd actually build a nuclear power plant?  I'd better make it only triple-redundant."

(First heard in the context of NASA engineers and the Columbia disaster, and the punchline was "30 years ago?  You mean we might actually put a man on the moon again?")