[nukkad] Lost Keys

["Pravin Walunjkar" <1>]

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The difference between perseverance and obstinacy is that one comes from
a strong will, and the other from a strong won't. -- Henry Ward Beecher
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We keep on criticising our people for lack of neatness and /or dilution
of procedures

Well. . . . . . . . It is the same story everywhere around the globe . .
. . . . 

Lost Keys

Another day, another report of a security scandal from inside the
nations' nuclear weapons laboratories. On January 1, CBS Evening News
reported that hundreds of keys were missing at several Energy Department
nuclear facilities around the nation. CBS correspondent Sharyl Attkisson
told viewers that some of the keys controlled access to laboratory
buildings that contain classified or sensitive materials and
information. 

Her report was triggered by revelations that two-hundred keys have
turned up missing at the Y-12 nuclear plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
Y-12 was set up during World War II to produce highly-enriched uranium
(HEU) for nuclear warheads. Today, Y-12 refurbishes nuclear warheads and
serves as a major storage facility for HEU. Attkisson said that some of
the missing keys controlled access to sensitive areas at the plant.
Energy Department spokesmen tried to stonewall her and sent security
guards out to harass her when she did a standup in front of the
headquarters building in Washington, DC. 

Plant spokesmen dismissed concerns about the vulnerability of sensitive
information and materials. One told the media that most of the keys were
to "administrative, non-sensitive functions." He did admit that a
"relatively small number of keys" were for what the plant considers
"medium security" buildings. But all of these facilities have already
been re-keyed, according the spokesman. Another shrugged off the lost
keys and pointed to reports about similar problems at other labs in
California and New Mexico. 

Attkisson said these references were to reports earlier this year about
the loss of keys at Livermore National Lab in California and Sandia
National Lab in New Mexico. At Sandia, she reported that a set of master
keys had gone missing for more than a week. The potential security
breach went unreported and no one bothered to change the locks. 

She also reported on a more serious security problem at Livermore. In
early November, an internal Energy Department report found that more
than 100,000 locks will have to be changed at the California lab as a
result of lost master keys and master-key cards. The estimated cost to
the taxpayer will be $1.7 million dollars. The internal report warned
that some of the missing keys opened locks leading to "some of the most
sensitive areas of the lab." Moreover, in some cases, the lab had
experienced a "double failure." That means that the two primary types of
security locks protecting the same area are compromised at the same
time. But Livermore responded that there was no evidence that classified
materials had been jeopardized. 

The report also criticizes the lab for failing to report the losses in a
timely fashion and also for failing to recognize the potential security
vulnerability. After Attkisson's CBS News report, the Energy Department
announced that it was set to launch a "lock and key inventory" at all
the nation's nuclear labs. That is the second time her reporting has
prodded the department to review security at its labs. Last year, her
stories about fraud and mismanagement at Los Alamos led to firings and
reassignments of top lab managers. 


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have a great day !
- pravin walunjkar. 
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