Lab Director Orders Halt to Classified Work at LANL
By Leslie Hoffman
The Associated Press
Another security breach at Los Alamos National Laboratory prompted the lab to halt all classified work Thursday while officials conduct a wall-to-wall inventory of sensitive data.
The stand-down began at noon, and the inventory of CDs, floppy disks and other electronic data storage devices is expected to be completed within days, lab spokesman Kevin Roark said.
Last week, the lab reported that two items containing classified information turned up missing during a special inventory for an upcoming experiment. The items were identified only as removable data storage devices.
The incident is the latest in a series of embarrassments that have prompted federal officials to put the Los Alamos management contract up for bid for the first time in the 61-year history of the lab that built the atomic bomb.
Lab officials are searching for the items and investigating how they disappeared. Individuals with access to the missing items can only enter their workplace under escort and work has been shut down in part of the unit involved, the Weapons Physics Directorate, while the investigation continues, lab officials said.
The lab has had security stand-downs in the past, the last one several years ago, Roark said.
The National Nuclear Security Agency, the federal agency overseeing the labs, sent a team to Los Alamos this week to investigate the loss.
The University of California, which has operated Los Alamos from its beginnings during the World War II race to build the bomb, has not decided whether to compete for the contract when it expires next year.
But UC President warned on Thursday: "These types of incidents are unacceptable and they really do have to come to an end."
Pete Nanos, director of the Los Alamos lab, briefed the UC Board of Regents on the incident, telling them: "It's time for all the employees at Los Alamos to take a stand and ask themselves what do I believe in. The challenge before them is clear."
Nanos told employees Wednesday that because of the latest security lapse, there is talk on Capitol Hill of drafting legislation that would forbid UC from bidding on the lab's contract, which expires in September 2005, according to the lab's online employee newsletter.
"People in Washington just don't understand how any group of people that purports to be so intelligent can be so inept," Nanos was quoted as telling employees.
He called those who don't follow security rules "cowboys" and warned the work force "we're fighting for the very identity of Los Alamos as a science laboratory," according to the newsletter.
"It's one of the last two science labs that does national security work in any major way, and I believe we're on the verge of losing that," Nanos was quoted as telling workers.
Steven Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientists' project on government secrecy, applauded the stand-down.
"It's been a long time coming, but now it's here. It's what they have to do to confront this recurring problem," Aftergood said.
Similarly classified material slated for destruction was reported missing in May. Lab officials later said they believe it was, indeed, destroyed but the paperwork was faulty.
Los Alamos has been under intense scrutiny since November 2002 when allegations surfaced about purchasing fraud, equipment theft and mismanagement. The ensuing scandal prompted an overhaul of lab business policies and a culling of top managers.
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Associated Press Reporter Michelle Locke in San Francisco contributed to this story.
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