ABQjournal: LANL Restrictions Now Nationwide

Saturday, July 24, 2004

LANL Restrictions Now Nationwide

By Adam Rankin
Journal Staff Writer
    Fallout from security problems at Los Alamos National Laboratory went nationwide Friday.
    In an unprecedented move, U.S. Energy Department Secretary Spencer Abraham ordered a nationwide shutdown of all DOE work using computer data storage devices containing classified information, such as the two Zip disks discovered missing at Los Alamos on July 7.
    Citing LANL's loss of so-called "Controlled Removable Electronic Media," or CREM, Abraham said in a statement that DOE "must minimize the risk of human error or malfeasance to a much greater extent."
    Beginning Monday, when the shutdown becomes effective, all DOE labs must inventory and account for all CREM and conduct weekly inventories thereafter.
    Work on CREM won't resume until DOE is satisfied each site has fulfilled the directive.
    Abraham cautioned that DOE has no evidence of accountability problems with classified information elsewhere. The nationwide inventory and stand-down is part of an effort "to take all necessary action to prevent such problems from occurring at all," Abraham stated.
    DOE spokeswoman Jeanne Lopatto said less than half of DOE's 59 sites would be affected, but she refused to give an exact number.
    At Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, managers spent much of the day Friday notifying workers about the shutdown. Many Sandia employees have a schedule that gives them alternating Fridays off, and they all had to be notified, said labs spokesman Michael Padilla.
    "We take this very seriously," Padilla said.
    Padilla said Sandia did not have an idea yet what effect the shutdown would have on its programs.
    LANL has faced a classified work shutdown since July 15 and a total operations stand-down since July 16, when director Pete Nanos decided the loss of two Zip disks was connected to a much broader inability or unwillingness among LANL employees to follow safety and security procedures.
    At a Thursday news conference, Nanos said investigations have revealed cases where lab employees have tried to intimidate custodians charged with keeping track of classified information when those custodians tried to enforce security rules.
    Now custodians will be under a separate leadership, Nanos said, "so there is no opportunity... to put any pressure on classified material custodians not to do their job properly."
    Fifteen employees, 11 of whom had access to the safe where the two missing disks were stored, will be stripped of their lab badges and will lose all access to the laboratory except under escort.
    This is the fourth instance since January 2003 where LANL officials have been unable to account for classified disks, 14 in all. LANL officials believe 12 disks missing in prior incidents were destroyed or had their information erased, but they don't have the documentation to prove it.
    Fed up with repeated security breaches and scandal, Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., wants LANL's manager, the University of California, off the job by March 15 and blocked from participating in the upcoming competition to run the lab scheduled for September 2005.
    "I am fed up with the careless way the Laboratory has been run," Allard said in a prepared statement.
    On Thursday, he introduced legislation, called the Los Alamos National Laboratory National Security Act, that would require DOE to fire UC by March and appoint an interim manager until a new manager can be chosen.
    Allard said that 60 years of managing LANL for the government has allowed UC to become "too comfortable, too arrogant to properly manage this national security asset."
    New Mexico's congressional delegation was quick to disagree and urged that DOE be allowed to select the best manager from the competition.
    Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., a longtime LANL and UC supporter, said in a statement that he understands why Allard is so frustrated, but he stressed that "it is absolutely inappropriate to legislate" who the new LANL operator may or may not be.
    "A process is in place to select the best qualified contractor, and that process must be allowed to proceed," Domenici said.
    Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., said national security wouldn't benefit from a sudden statutory termination of the contract and won't support the bill.
    Rep. Tom Udall, D-N.M., who represents Los Alamos County, said Allard "goes a little bit far in interrupting the process that is in place" for determining a new LANL manager.
    Meanwhile, LANL is still searching for the missing disks and is busy centralizing all its CREM into libraries where custodians will have better control over the whereabouts of CREM.
    UC's vice president for laboratory management Robert Foley said LANL is following DOE's directive and working toward reducing CREM to zero. Right now, LANL has about 40,000 pieces of the removable media.
    "I know it is going to take time, and I know it is going to take money," Foley said about the directive at a Thursday news conference.

Potential LANL Bidders
    CH2M Hill
    Computer Sciences Corp.
    ADC Ltd.
    Dade Moeller & Associates Inc.
    Northrop Grumman Technical Services Inc.
    Burns and Roe Enterprises Inc.
    Washington Group BWXT Operating Services LLC
    The Regents of the University of California
    Lockheed Martin Corp.
    Tetra Tech Inc.
    University of Texas System
    Titan Corp.
    The Texas A&M University System

Source: The National Nuclear Security Administration