Summer 2005, Vol. 2, Issue 2

ACREM heats up

A worker removes the by-products of ACREM destruction from a furnace. Click image for larger view.

Y‑12 is the first DOE-NNSA site to destroy accountable classified removable media (for example, computer hard drives) formerly used in classified computers, a welcome development for Donna Lawson and Jason Spencer of Information and Materials.

Custodians of a vast inventory of ACREM that was no longer needed, Lawson and Spencer 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.

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