Europe News
German staffer sacked over web quiz on nuclear power
Jan 26, 2011, 18:24 GMT
Philippsburg, Germany - A German who used Quizlet.com to memorize the rules for running a nuclear power plant has been sacked, the utility company announced Wednesday.
Quizlet, which is designed to make memorizing fun, is typically used to help students learn lists of foreign language vocabulary.
Energie Baden-Wuerttemberg (EnBW) said it sacked the employee, who last year uploaded text to the US site while he was studying for an exam. The documents were only for company use, but could be accessed by any internet user on the Quizlet site.
The company said none of the Q-and-A data compromised the security of the reactor at Philippsburg.
The questions included: What is the purpose of a reactor pressure vessel and the main coolant pumps? What incidents in nuclear power plants must be reported to regulators? Some questions were specific to the reactor, code-named KKP 1.
EnBW said it had reported the upload to regulators in the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, as this was not an appropriate use of company information. The quiz has since been deleted from Quizlet.
The man was immediately suspended and no longer works for the company, a spokesman said, adding, 'We will not tolerate such behaviour with data.'
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