Stories
ACREM heats up
A worker removes the by-products of ACREM destruction from a furnace.
Y‑12 is the first U.S. Department of Energy–National Nuclear Security Administration site to destroy accountable classified removable media (ACREM)—for example, computer hard drives—formerly used in classified computers, a welcome development for staff of Information and Materials (I&M).
Custodians of a vast inventory of ACREM that was no longer needed, I&M staff seemed destined to devote 5 hours or more one day each week performing required inventories and paperwork. This task would only increase as Y‑12 continued deploying more diskless classified workstations.
The destruction method for non-accountable media—degaussing and disposal—was not approved for accountable media, so an approved ACREM destruction method needed to be identified and implemented quickly.
Lee Bzorgi of Engineering, who has a penchant for invention, found the solution. Melting, which is an approved destruction method, seemed the most promising approach; however, simply tossing media into a heat source was neither efficient nor necessarily effective, so Bzorgi invented a tray that can withstand a 2,300-degree furnace and make efficient use of that heat to melt disks quickly.
The tray can hold up to 1,000 disks. In the most recent burn 667 disks—56,000 gigabytes of information—were destroyed. The destruction of these disks improved Y‑12’s security posture and demonstrated the inventiveness of Y‑12’s staff.