Lead by terrorism fears, search engine giant Google has been asked by no less than the head of Australia’s nuclear energy agency to please remove images of Australia’s Lucas Heights nuclear reactor from Google’s database of satellite images.
The fear is that the images make the reactor just that much easier of a target for terrorist. Google already blocks out images of sensitive U.S. structures, such as the White House and the Treasury Department (although they are still clearly located and outlined in the images, it is just the detail which is missing).
“We’re going to ask Google to take it off,” said Dr. Ian Smith, director of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, explaining that “it doesn’t stop somebody who’s determined to get the information getting it, but having it on the internet just makes it so much more readily available. We don’t want to provide any easy assistance to anyone who wants to interfere with the site.”
While one can perhap see his point, it seems that removing the images from Google wouldn’t really make the reactor any more difficult to find. Indeed, more troubling than a public image of the top of the reactor and its location is this public statement from Dr. Smith himself: “There’s a small area near the middle of the site which is quite secure, but the bulk of our site isn’t all that secure. We don’t have the guarding or the hardware to stop someone from getting in to the site if they really wanted to.”
Whew, sure hope they remove those images!
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