Tag: Nuclear

Political

Oman Removed From The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Restricted Destinations List By Obama

OMAN, another big Clinton Foundation donor, was removed from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Restricted Destinations List by Obama in 2012. More pay-to-play?

Oman Removed From The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Restricted Destinations List By Obama

FOREIGN GOVERNMENT DONATIONS TO THE CLINTON FOUNDATION WHILE HILLARY WAS A U.S. SENATOR

* “As of 2008, the Clinton Foundation raised at least $46 million from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Brunei, Oman, and other foreign governments–the very governments Secretary of State Hillary Clinton eventually negotiated with. ” [8/14/13]

* “According to Clinton’s list, Saudi Arabia gave $10 million to $25 million to the foundation. Other government donors include Norway, Kuwait, Qatar, Brunei, Oman, Italy, Jamaica and Tenerife in the Canary Islands. The Dutch national lottery gave $5 million to $10 million.” [1/18/09]

Removal of Oman from the Restricted Destinations List
This Rule document was issued by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)

For related information, Open Docket Folder

Action

Final rule.

Summary

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC or the Commission) is amending its export and import regulations by removing Oman from the list of restricted destinations. This amendment is necessary to conform the NRC’s regulations with U.S. Government foreign policy.

Dates

The final rule is effective February 27, 2012.

Addresses

You can access publicly available documents related to this final rule using the following methods:

  • NRC’s Public Document Room (PDR): The public may examine and have copied, for a fee, publicly available documents at the NRC’s PDR, Room O1-F21, One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland 20852.
  • NRC’s Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS): Publicly available documents created or received at the NRC are available online in the NRC Library at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. From this page, the public can gain entry into ADAMS, which provides text and image files of the NRC’s public documents. If you do not have access to ADAMS or if there are problems in accessing the documents located in ADAMS, contact the NRC’s PDR reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, 301-415-4737, or by email to [email protected].
  • Federal Rulemaking Web Site: Supporting materials related to this final rule can be found at http://www.regulations.gov by searching on Docket ID NRC-2011-0264. Address questions about NRC dockets to Carol Gallagher, telephone: 301-492-3668; email: [email protected].
For Further Information Contact

Brooke G. Smith, Senior International Policy Analyst, Office of International Programs, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001; telephone: 301-415-2347, email: [email protected].

 

 

 

 

 

Political

United States Nuclear Arsenal Controlled By 1970s Computers With 8-inch Floppy Disks

A Government Accountability Office report details ‘Museum-Ready’ machines controlling the United States Nuclear force messaging system that are ‘obsolete’.

United States Nuclear Arsenal Controlled By 1970s Computers With 8-inch Floppy Disks
The Department of Defense Air Force Strategic Automated Command and Control System, as pictured in the Government Accountability Office report.

The US military’s nuclear arsenal is controlled by computers built in the 1970s that still use 8-inch floppy disks.

A report into the state of the US government, released by congressional investigators, has revealed that the country is spending around $60 billion to maintain museum-ready computers, which many do not even know how to operate any more, as their creators retire.

The Defense Department’s Strategic Automated Command and Control System (DDSACCS), which is used to send and receive emergency action messages to US nuclear forces, runs on a 1970s IBM computing platform. It still uses 8-inch floppy disks to store data.

We’re not even talking the more modern 3.5 inch floppy disk that millennials might only know as the save icon. We’re talking the OG 8-inch floppy, which was a large floppy square with a magnetic disk inside it. They became commercially available in 1971, but were replaced by the 5¼ inch floppy in 1976, and by the more familiar hard plastic 3.5 inch floppy in 1982.

Shockingly, the US Government Accountability Office said: “Replacement parts for the system are difficult to find because they are now obsolete.”

The Pentagon said it was instigating a full replacement of the ancient machines and while the entire upgrade will take longer, the crucial floppy disks should be gone by the end of next year.

Given that magnetic media has a finite shelf life, and that disks and the drives needed to read and write to them are older than some of the operators of the machinery, the floppy revelation makes you wonder whether the US could even launch a nuclear attack if required. An “error, data corrupted” message could be literally life or death.

You can read the full GAO report here:

[pdf-embedder url=”https://commonsenseevaluation.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/677436.pdf”]

 
 
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