UK admits it can't keep track of plutonium

The British appear to have lost track of enough plutonium for a small nuclear arsenal:

Enough plutonium to create seven nuclear bombs has "gone missing" from Sellafield nuclear plant. The 30kg of the nuclear material is unaccounted for following an annual audit by the British Nuclear Group (BNG) of its various plants. The problem is believed to be a "paper loss" due to problems in the auditing process rather than any material actually disappearing from the site in Cumbria.

This should be a major cause for concern, right? RIGHT?? Maybe not, if you're a government bureaucrat:

A BNG spokeswoman at Sellafield said: "There is always a discrepancy between the physical inventory and the book inventory. "There is no suggestion that any material has left the site."

Yes there is. You're short 66 pounds of plutonium! And it gets worse. This isn't a one-time mistake:

A spokesman for the Department of Trade and Industry said: "It is not unusual for the accounting process to indicate material unaccounted for."

Great. Could you imagine if Enron tried to use this defense? "Oh, it's no big deal. It is not unusual for the accounting process to indicate billions of dollars of phony business."