US accidentally posts list of nuclear sites

Disclosure not a security risk, US officials say

June 04, 2009|Eileen Sullivan and H. Josef Hebert, Associated Press

WASHINGTON - The government accidentally posted on the Internet a list of government and civilian nuclear facilities and their activities in the United States, but US officials said yesterday the posting included no information that compromised national security.

However, Energy Secretary Steven Chu, questioned about the disclosure at a House hearing, expressed concern with respect to a uranium storage facility at the department's Y-12 facility in Oak Ridge, Tenn. The facility holds large quantities of highly enriched uranium, which if obtained can be used to fashion a nuclear weapon.

"That's of great concern," said Chu, referring to the Y-12 site. "We will be looking hard and making sure physical security of those sites [at Y-12] is sufficient to prevent eco-terrorists and others getting hold of that material."

But later Chu told reporters that while the disclosure may be embarrassing, "there's no secret classified information that's been compromised [and] the sites and everything are public knowledge" available elsewhere.

But, he added, the list "gathers it up" in a single document, and that is of some concern.

The 266-page document was published on May 6 as a transmission from President Obama to 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."

Chu said he had no details as to how the document was released, beyond that it involved the government printing office. "Someone made a mistake," said Chu, appearing before a House Appropriations subcommittee .

Damien LaVera, a spokesman for the National Nuclear Security Administration, said the document had been reviewed by a number of US agencies and that disclosure of the information did not jeopardize national security. He said the document is part of an agreement on nuclear material inspection under the IAEA's nuclear nonproliferation effort.

"While we would have preferred it not be released, the Departments of Energy, Defense, and Commerce and the [Nuclear Regulatory Commission] all thoroughly reviewed it to ensure that no information of direct national security significance would be compromised," LaVera said in a statement.

An Energy Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to discuss the situation publicly, said none of the sites on the list is directly part of the government's nuclear weapons infrastructure.

In addition to the Y-12 facility, the document includes some facilities at the Energy Department's Hanford nuclear site in Washington state and various civilian nuclear fuel processing sites including uranium enrichment facilities, government officials said.