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Karl Who?
Australia's nuclear agency has decided to allow satellite images of its nuclear reactor to remain freely available on the web after originally saying it wanted them censored because of security concerns.
Chief of operations at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) Dr Ron Cameron says ANSTO has discussed the images of the Lucas Heights reactor with the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation and other Australian security agencies.
The images can be accessed at the Google Earth website.
He says ANSTO contacted Google last week to discuss "where the technology might be going in the future" and discuss options such as blurring the images.
But he now says ANSTO has decided the images are not a security risk.
The Google Earth service allows web users to zoom in on places of interest, including schools, houses, parks, train stations and nuclear reactors.
But it has blanked out sensitive US sites like the White House.
Cameron says ANSTO broached the possibility of blurring the images when it spoke to Google last week, but this was never discussed at a senior level.
ANSTO had since decided no action is needed because of the poor quality of the pictures, which are already two years old.
"Our view is that we've been aware of these images for some time and they're not of sufficient concern," he says.
"We've since confirmed with our security agencies in government that they have no concerns at this stage so we won't be taking any action.
Mr Cameron denied ANSTO was doing a backflip because of negative publicity.
Roger Clarke, a visiting professor at the Australian National University who specialises in the public policy implications of data surveillance technology, says ANSTO may have jumped the gun with its initial comments.
He says the images of the Lucas Heights reactor are so poor that ANSTO made the right decision deciding not to press to have it censored.
But Clarke says the episode raises serious issues and has implications for individual privacy, high-security jails and homes of the wealthy, as well as strategic sites.
"We should pause and think about some of these things and work out whether there should be some levels of restraint placed at law.
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