Nuclear submarine documents leaked

SENSITIVE UK DOCUMENTS revealing how to cause a Fukushima-style reactor meltdown on a nuclear submarine have been posted on the Internet.

The documents were shared on the UK's Parliament website after anti-nuclear campaigners filed a Freedom of Information request.

The most classified information, which exposes the vulnerabilities of UK submarines and the capabilities of US vessels, was blacked out. However, a major mistake by Ministry of Defence staff meant the redactions could be read by anyone with the most basic computer skills.

Instead of omitting the sensitive text, the geniuses at the Ministry of Defence simply turned the background behind the letters black. They appeared unreadable, but the words only needed to be copied and pasted into a new document to view them in full.

The report detailed potential accidents that could happen aboard nuclear submarines, including nuclear reactor meltdown, which could be caused by a single individual onboard the vessel. Other incidents were outlined, including problems with flawed reactors that are still being installed in new submarines.

The documents also revealed that US nuclear submarines are twice as safe as UK boats in many key areas, with better policies in place for dealing with accidents and disasters.

"This is hugely embarrassing," a senior Ministry of Defence source told The Daily Star. "Whoever is responsible should be sacked. The Americans will be furious their procedures have been exposed."

Patrick Mercer, a Tory PM and former Army officer, said,"All our enemies are trying to get their hands on nuclear weapons and materials and any information in this document would be hugely interesting to them and potentially catastrophic."

It's worrying to think that such classified information could be so badly dealt with. Surely there are protocols and procedures in place for releasing documents containing sensitive information to the public. We would expect there to be a specific method for censoring text, not like this amateurish approach. That there was not makes us wonder if other top secret military documents are being circulated with such inadequate security protections.

The documents have now been removed from the Parliament website. We can only hope they will be properly censored before they're republished. µ