News: Plutonium stockpile accounting error found

[Chuck Cooper <ccc@pp.pdx.edu>]

Nukes: A Lesson From Russia



By Bruce G. Blair



Wednesday, July 11, 2001; Page A19



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Russian experts at the Kurchatov Institute, the renowned nuclear research

center in Moscow, recently found what appears to be a critical deficiency in

the internal U.S. system for keeping track of all bomb-grade nuclear materials

held by the Energy Department -- enough material for tens of thousands of

nuclear bombs.



Kurchatov scientists discovered a fatal flaw in the Microsoft software donated

to them by the Los Alamos National Laboratory. This same software has been the

backbone of America's nuclear materials control system for years. The Russians

found that over time, as the computer program is used, some files become

invisible and inaccessible to the nuclear accountants using the system, even

though the data still exist in netherworld of the database. Any insider who

understood the software could exploit this flaw by tracking the "disappeared"

files and then physically diverting, for a profit, the materials themselves.

=========== snip ================

From:



http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A44053-2001Jul10?language=printer







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