that isn’t even just a single spool of tape; it is probably 700 spools of 2 inch tape; enough to fill a small barn with. how do you mislay such a quantity of stuff?

It worries me to think these boffins are trusted with nuclear materials as well….

I think the “tapes may be unplayable” is a complete excuse and cop-out anyway. the ropey tape formulations where the oxide flakes off or turns into mush are from a few years the late 1970s

I still have a 1/4″ audio tape machine back at Reading which I used to do my mixtapes on in the early 1990s… some the master tapes were from the 1970s but worked fine..