US Nuclear Lab Temporarily Halts Secret Work
Date: 16-Jul-04
Country: USA
Author: Adam Tanner
Such a precaution at Los Alamos, the New Mexico birthplace of the first atomic bomb during World War II, has not occurred in recent memory, lab officials said, highlighting the seriousness of the breach.
The lab said it learned of two missing data storage disks on July 7 during an inventory check. At a news conference, the lab director and other officials declined to detail the nature of the data, citing national security concerns.
"Until such time as we are confident that we are addressing this issue, then all activities with respect to classified materials have been put on hold," said Gerald Parsky, chairman of the Regents of the University of California which manages Los Alamos. "These breaches of national security will not be tolerated."
The case of the missing disks is the latest in a series of security shortcomings at U.S. nuclear weapons labs in recent years. Just last month a set of keys to a sensitive nuclear area at Los Alamos went missing for most of a day.
"This is a big deal, but it is certainly a necessary step," Danielle Brian, director of the Project on Government Oversight, a watchdog group in Washington D.C., said of the Los Alamos halt of classified work.
The missing data was on two zip disk drives, she said, adding: "They need to change the way they handle classified media and move to what's called a media-less system so that there isn't the capacity for a scientist to just walk off with a disk or a zip drive."
Los Alamos spokesman Kevin Roark said "fewer than 20" staffers have had their lab access suspended pending the results of the inquiry.
BREAKING THE RULES
Lab director Gerald Nanos met some of Los Alamos's 12,000 employees - most of whom have government security clearances - this week. Yesterday, he met with University of California officials in San Francisco to address the latest scandal.
"Where in the past, most of the issues were associated with inventory errors and that sort of thing, I have a clear indication here that people did not follow the rules as to the chain of custody and keeping track and doing the proper documented transfer of material," Nanos said.
Officials said, however, that they had no indication that the sensitive data had been taken outside of the well-secured Los Alamos facility, which is spread over nearly 40 square miles.
Four years ago Taiwanese-American scientist Wen Ho Lee, was accused of stealing secrets at Los Alamos. He later pleaded guilty to one count of downloading nuclear weapons design secrets to a non-secure computer after the government's case against him collapsed.
Robert Dynes, University of California president, said any findings about the incident would likely be kept secret.
"If you were to suddenly tell everyone in the world that this information might be out there, you would start a treasure hunt, and that's not what we are interested in doing here," he said. "We have to protect the security of the nation."
Robert Foley, a retired admiral who serves as the Los Alamos vice president for laboratory management, said an isolated culture among scientists there may have contributed to sloppy security standards.
