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Article: Will O'Leary legacy last? (US Dept. of Energy Sec Hazel O'Leary's campaign to declassify the government agency's information)
- Article from:
- Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
- Article date:
- March 1, 1998
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1998 Educational Foundation for Nuclear Science, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Bureaucracies are allergic to change. As President Kennedy once put it, "Government departments are like icebergs." Breaking this pattern, the Energy Department has launched a fundamental and long overdue over-haul of its culture and operating practices. The goal: opening up one of the most secretive and inaccessible agencies of the U.S. government.
The shift began in December 1993, when then-Secretary Hazel O'Leary announced a wide-ranging "openness initiative" to promote access to nuclear information. Now in its fifth year, this effort has generated releases of important nuclear data and triggered major changes in Energy's practices for classifying and managing ...