Breeding spooks

The Tennessee Valley Authority is back in the breeder reactor business, some 24 years after the Clinch River reprocessessing plant project was KO'd by Congress.

The Energy Dept. has awarded the TVA $4 million for a preliminary design for a breeder reactor, one that breeds new nuclear fuel from radioactive reactor waste products. Breeder technology converts spent fuel rods into plutonium, which can be used as reactor fuel.

Once a design is approved, the TVA would build a demonstration plant costing billions, but still only one-twentieth to one-tenth the size needed for commercial viability.

A hidden cost of a breeder reactor is the extreme security needed to safeguard it from nuclear terrorists and other bad guys. That's because plutonium is ideal for a basic atomic bomb. One of the A-bombs used on Japan consisted of plutonium. So the availability of this dangerous stuff requires a significant covert security presence. You can bet your bottom dollar that if East Tennessee has a hefty share of national security types related to the Oak Ridge National Laboratories, that presence will go up substantially if a breeder reactor is built.

I know whereof I speak. In 1984, I wrote a story about the possibility that (none-dare-call-it communist) China might be able to upgrade its nuclear arms program with nuclear technology that was to be provided by the United States. The story included lots of detail about nuclear plants and terrorist potential.

In the interests of accuracy, I asked the Energy Dept. how many nuclear warheads the U.S. possessed. I wan't interested in compromising national security but simply in making sure every fact was nailed down. I was told to submit a written request. I did and eventually got an answer -- between 10,000 and 25,000 as I recall -- as well as an unpleasant surprise: hundreds, and I do mean hundreds, of thinly veiled covert operatives following me everywhere and monitoring everything I did. Also petty thefts and other forms of harassment went up astronomically from my previous existence.

At length, I called a spokesman in the Reagan White House, and the more obvious stuff ceased. The White House spokesman said he couldn't understand why CIA guys were being used when this should have been an FBI matter. An FBI type of less intrusive surveillance began. But, after a few months, the cowboys were back, with all their antics.

Editors and publishers became aware of this situation, but I suppose listening to spurious "national security" arguments, refused to publish anything. Eventually, I was unable to work in professional journalism as a result of the heavy-handed presence, which intruded into those newsrooms where I landed.

Since that time, the federal presence has doggedly persisted. Neither Bush I nor Bush II nor Clinton I could counteract this group. Why would they continue so long? Media control is the answer. Witness the Pentagon's manipulation of TV military analysts. To admit error and let the matter be discussed publicly would cause a terrific loss of face and media control.

No? Take a look at the facts around 9/11. Media skepticism was forcefully and effectively suppressed.

May 13, 2008 Well gollee, no expression of interest at all in the above missive, though I sent the link to numerous newsrooms, j-schools and the like. One journalism list in which I participate seems to have gone completely blank and another one has almost nothing today. But, I don't take alleged silence as real silence. There are always some people who are interested in such things and who want to talk. I believe that when I disseminate the truth, that it gets through and makes a difference.

May 14, 2008 Today I did get one expression of sympathy from a colleague who can make similar assertions about spook meddling. Hopefully, this post will generate more open discussion of spook harassment of journalists -- in this country.

Ironically, today the New York Times -- which has been aware of the surveillance for years -- prominently displayed an advertisement for the CIA on its web site main page.

A license to encrypt...

I have been urging that Americans shun passwords that make them prey to identity thieves and unwarranted government snooping and I recommended use of passing license plates for random characters that are easily remembered.

Current New Jersey plates are especially suitable, coming in the easy to remember form LLL NNL, where L stands for letter and N for numeral. The number of combinations is high and probability of mechanical decryption low.

My new suggestion is to randomly select from, say a shopping center parking lot, two license plates and combine them thus: LLL NNL LLL. Easy to remember and low chance of decryption.

For example, take DFF 52W XBN and QRC 22N PFC and combine them to make

DFF 52W PFC

To get the most out of the set of combinations and reduce decryption chances, change between 1 and 9 characters. (We could say 0 and 9, except we worry about the natural tendency to be lazy.)

So, changing, say, the fourth and seventh characters, we have

DFF 72W SFC

Easy to remember. Tough to crack.

>>>>>>
PS. Immediately after my previous post at a former URL on this subject, hackers stole my email address prconant@yahoo.com, changing the password and the security question. I mean, how could I forget my pet's name? I was able to find on Gmail a link to "account compromised or taken over" but not so on Yahoo.

I suppose they wanted to mock me. But, my Internet activities have long been under severe controls that aren't worth my bother to deal with all the time. That fact doesn't mean license plate passwords, if widely used, won't throw a big monkey wrench into the surveillance system.