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Jun 3, 2009 01:34 PM in Technology | 5 comments

U.S. government accidentally posts nuclear sites online

By Katherine Harmon

 
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government posts nuclear sites onlinePerhaps more damning than unflattering personal photos, the government mistakenly posted a large document detailing public and private nuclear research sites and programs on the U.S. Government Printing Office Web site, reports the Associated Press. Government sources say that the information doesn't pose a national security risk.

The 266-page report included information labeled as "highly confidential safeguards sensitive," but, National Nuclear Security Administration spokesperson Damien LaVera said in a statement, "no information of direct national security significance would be compromised." The document had been revised by President Obama for Congress to review, and The New York Times reports, neither the Government Printing Office or the House Committee on Foreign Affairs (to whom publication was attributed on the report's cover) have been able to explain the error.

What was on the list that shouldn't have been? Highly enriched weapon-grade uranium (Tennessee), nuclear sites (Washington State) and nuclear reactors—made to study nuclear facility accidents (Pittsburgh).

For any curious surfers, the report has since been taken down, but much of the information it contained, such as the locations and details of the country's 103 nuclear power plants, is already publicly available.

Government Printing Office logo courtesy of GPO via Wikimedia Commons

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