Energy Dept. Halted Drug Probe at Lab, Report Says

Top Department of Energy officials quashed an undercover drug investigation at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory as agents were on the verge of revealing extensive drug use by workers assigned to the nuclear weapons lab’s most sensitive areas, according to congressional investigators.

In a report to be made public today, House investigators said that Operation Snowstorm was terminated in September, 1986, only nine months after it was begun by laboratory security officers and before an undercover agent could penetrate the laboratory’s top-secret “Q” clearance areas.

According to the report, John Hunt, the laboratory’s security director, told members of his staff that, had the probe been allowed to continue, “we would have to arrest 20% of the lab” for sale or use of cocaine, marijuana or amphetamines.

6 Arrests, 10 Resignations

The aborted investigation led to six arrests and 10 resignations of employees at the lab in Livermore in Alameda County. The report said the undercover agent had identified 11 drug dealers and 24 drug users at the weapons lab, which has 11,000 workers. Some of the suspects had high security clearances.

“I find a disappointing lack of curiosity on the part of both the laboratory and the DOE (Department of Energy) regarding the seriousness of our findings,” said Rep. John D. Dingell (D-Mich.), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce oversight and investigations subcommittee, which conducted the inquiry.

“The most serious question may be why DOE officials seemed to be more concerned with the image of their facilities than with our national security.”

An Energy Department spokesman said the agency disputes the Dingell subcommittee findings, but said officials would respond in detail at a hearing scheduled today.

In a prepared statement, the agency said: “In this specific investigation, we feel the laboratory carried out its responsibilities for both planning and execution (of the drug-use investigation) in a professional manner. DOE is certainly taking into account the lessons learned from this investigation and is moving forward to try to minimize the effect drug abuse can have on our mission of operating one of the nation’s most critical defense programs.”

The Livermore laboratory is operated by the University of California under a contract with the Energy Department. The laboratory performs top-secret work for the department and the Pentagon on nuclear weapons, the “Star Wars” missile defense system and other high-technology military projects.

The problem of drug use by employees at the nation’s sensitive weapons facilities came to light in 1986 after the Energy Department suspended 17 employees at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant at Oak Ridge, Tenn., for use of marijuana and cocaine.

The Dingell committee began an investigation and learned of the undercover operation that had been conducted at Livermore beginning in January, 1986. The committee report said it determined that Energy Department and top laboratory officials suspended Operation Snowstorm in September, 1986, just three days before undercover officer Robert Buda, an experienced security officer from UCLA, was to receive clearance to work in the lab’s most secret areas.

In the first two weeks of his investigation, Buda had made a drug buy at the lab, the report said, and determined that an assortment of drugs were being sold and in some cases used on the plant grounds. At the time the inquiry was cut off, Buda reported that he had identified more than 100 laboratory employees who required further investigation, the committee staff found.

The congressional investigators also learned that the four officers who ran Operation Snowstorm were demoted and removed from drug enforcement responsibilities.