The Hindu : Security overhaul at U.S. nuclear weapon labs

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jun 26, 2003

International

International

Security overhaul at U.S. nuclear weapon labs

WASHINGTON JUNE 25. The United States Energy Secretary, Spencer Abraham, has ordered a broad overhaul of security at U.S. nuclear weapon laboratories in response to a series of security lapses ranging from missing computers to reports of sleeping guards.

The order came as a Congressional report said that security upgrades required by heightened terrorist threats since the Sept. 11 attacks won't be fully in place and tested at the department's nuclear weapons facilities for two to five years.

"In light of recent security incidents at the labs ... improved security must be aggressive and far reaching,'' Mr. Abraham said.

He said he was directing the National Nuclear Security Administration, which oversees nuclear weapons programmes, ``to put in place any immediate changes'' deemed necessary to prevent future security problems.

All three of the major nuclear weapons labs — Sandia and Los Alamos in New Mexico and Lawrence Livermore in California — have been afflicted by security embarrassments in recent months.

``Our nuclear secrets are not safe,'' Sen. Chuck Grassley told a House of Representatives hearing on Tuesday. He described a long list of security flaps at the weapons labs, including lost keys to secure areas, guards found sleeping, stolen laptop computers, and a case where two vials of plutonium oxide were missing for two years without being reported.

In another incident, a van was stolen from a secure area of the Sandia lab, driven through a fence and later found in a commercial parking lot.

The incident was treated as ``a routine auto theft'' although no one knows what might have been inside the van. A classified computer was also missing from the same area, Mr. Grassley said, citing information from a whistleblower.

Rep. Christopher Shays blamed ``lax management and stubborn cultural antipathy'' at the research labs, despite heightened concern about terrorists obtaining nuclear material since the Sept. 11 attacks.

Linton Brooks, head of NNSA, a semi-autonomous agency with the Energy Department that was created several years ago to increase security, said he was concerned about a ``lax'' attitude and ``cultural problems'' that led to the recent incidents.

Still, he said, only the incident involving the vials of plutonium raised a national security concern. He called that a ``book-keeping problem.''

Mr. Abraham, in a statement issued hours after the hearing, directed Mr. Brooks ``to launch a comprehensive security overhaul.'' A report by the General Accounting Office, Congress' investigative arm, said management problems, ``confusion about roles and responsibilities'' and staffing shortages make if difficult for the Energy Department ``to effectively oversee security activities'' of the private contractors running the weapons facilities.

The GAO also said the Energy Department only last month produced the so-called Design Basis Threat document, that lays out the specific terrorist threat the nuclear facilities must be prepared to defend against in light of the Sept. 11 attacks. And, the GAO said, the department is not expected to have security measures to meet that level of threat in place for another two to five years.

Mr. Brooks said he didn't believe it would take that long. — AP

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