Obama Transparency Taken to New Heights: Release of Secret Nuclear Sites

On a day that started with Obama admin spouting nonsense on health care and gave us New York's Gillibrand catering to truthers we now have this catastrophe:

NY Times--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 on-line newsletter devoted to issues of federal secrecy. That publicity 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 was made public.

What can you even say about this? It reminds me of the time Bill Richardson and the Energy department managed to lose and hard drive with atomic information and then find it behind a photo copy machine. So how bad was the loss?

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. It can become a physical security threat.”

The information, considered sensitive but not classified, was assembled for transmission later this year to the International Atomic Energy Agency as part of a process by which the United States is opening itself up to more stringent inspections in hopes that foreign countries will do likewise, especially Iran and other states believed to be clandestinely developing nuclear arms.

President Obama sent the document to Congress on May 5 for Congressional review and possible revision, and the Government Printing Office subsequently posted the draft declaration on its web site.

Oh that Obama, just letting all of our secrets out, is that what he means by being a role model. Maybe now Iran and North Korea will accidentally release the information as well, perhaps that is the hope aspect of hope and change?

Steven Aftergood, a security expert at the Federation of American Scientists in Washington, revealed the existence of the document Monday in “Secrecy News,” an electronic newsletter that he publishes on the web.He expressed bafflement at its disclosure, calling it “a one-stop shop for information on U.S. nuclear programs.”

In his letter of transmittal to Congress, Mr. Obama characterized the information as “sensitive but unclassified” and said all the information that the United States gathered to comply with the advanced protocol “shall be exempt from disclosure” under the Freedom of Information Act.The report details the locations of hundreds of nuclear sites and activities. Each page is marked across the top “HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL SAFEGUARDS SENSITIVE,” with the exception of pages that detailed additional information such as site maps. In his transmittal letter, Mr. Obama said the cautionary language was a classification category of the I.A.E.A.’s inspector

I am baffeled by a much of the Obama admin as well, so your not alone. The worst parts, , the locations of Highly Enriched Uranium and Plutonium:

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 is marked “OFFICIAL USE ONLY,” with a dated note from an official saying that the document “may be exempt from public release under the “Freedom of Information Act.” The 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.

Tube vaults are typically cylinders embedded in concrete that prevent the accidental formation of critical masses of highly enriched uranium that could undergo bursts of nuclear fission, known as a criticality incident. According to federal reports, a typical tube vault can hold up to 44 tons of highly enriched uranium in 200 tubes. Motion detectors and television cameras typically monitor activity at each vault.

Another entry details a site at Hanford site of the Department of Energy, located near Richland, Wash., on the Columbia River. Its job was making plutonium — another bomb fuel — for the nation’s nuclear arsenal.

That is just flipping great. But have no fear the liberal Natural Resources Defense Council has said its no biggie, now they wouldn't be carrying water for Obama would they?