Restricted Data Declassification Decisions, 1946-2002
The Department of Energy this week released its most recent compilation of all decisions to declassify nuclear weapons-related information.
The new release (pdf), dated 2002, is the eighth and the last in what had been an annual series of such compilations. Unlike the others, however, it was marked “Official Use Only” and was not made publicly available. But DoE released it in response to a Freedom of Information Act request from the Federation of American Scientists.
See “Restricted Data Declassification Decisions, 1946 to the Present (RDD-8),” U.S. Department of Energy, January 1, 2002, 169 pages.
One of the latest declassification decisions, approved in 2001 and disclosed in the new compilation, acknowledges the previously classified “fact that gas centrifuge rotors are fabricated on mandrels.” A mandrel is a spindle or metal shaft around which other parts rotate.
Confirmation that the construction of the security perimeter and associated security infrastructure at RAF Lakenheath are still ongoing once again raises questions about whether U.S. nuclear weapons have already been deployed to the base.
Alaskans are sensibly pulling back from the vogue for bans and returning to a western tradition that has worked for more than half a century – one that welcomes innovation but also oversees it closely.
The strength of our nation’s data policy isn’t just in the rules we write, but in how effectively we translate those rules into a system that prioritizes the public good. Join us in this movement to design and build more resilient national data policies.
The human cost is measured in deaths. The financial cost is measured in the $52 billion taxpayers pay annually end stage renal disease – double NASA’s budget.