Experts to Scrutinize Nuclear Labs’ Security

University of California President Richard C. Atkinson has ordered a panel of expert advisors to review newly tightened security rules at UC-managed nuclear weapons labs “to make sure the university is doing everything possible to maintain the vital security interests of the United States.”

Atkinson’s decision, announced to the regents on Friday, came after the urging of Democratic Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, who wants the university to shield itself against mounting criticism in Washington over possible Chinese espionage and other potential security breaches at the labs that design nuclear weapons.

If the university does not move aggressively, Bustamante believes, its contract to manage the labs could suffer in the political fallout as critics continue to attack the Clinton administration for failing to safeguard the nation’s nuclear secrets.

“If the nation elects a president from Texas next year,” Bustamante said, referring to George W. Bush, the current Republican favorite, “my concern is that the University of Texas might all of a sudden be a big contender for management of the labs.”

To be sure, the U.S. Department of Energy has taken most of the blame for lax security since the FBI began investigating allegations that a former employee of the Los Alamos National Laboratory near Santa Fe, N.M., was a spy for China.

The University of California manages the Los Alamos lab under contract with the Energy Department, as well as the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory east of San Francisco and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, which does unclassified research.

As a result, some of the criticism has begun to spill over to the university.

The House of Representatives and the president’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board have suggested slapping steep fines on the university--or any other lab managers--if there are any future violations of security rules.

And the General Accounting Office, an investigative arm of Congress, cites inadequate security in advocating that the Energy Department end the university’s 50-year hold on running the labs and put UC’s contract up for bid when it expires in 2002.

“If they create a competitive bidding process and establish fines for security breaches, then they have laid the case that the University of California is responsible,” Bustamante said. “At the same time, it has always been understood that the federal government was supposed to be responsible for security.”

Although the federal government sets security policy, the directors of the Los Alamos and Livermore labs, who are UC officials, help enforce these safeguards.

So Atkinson instructed his Council on National Laboratories to work with security experts and review the labs’ implementation of all security and counterintelligence measures.

In a letter to council Chairman William R. Frazer, a retired Berkeley physics professor, Atkinson asks for an analysis of whether the safeguards are being implemented effectively and if any additional measures should be taken. He also wants the panel to compare UC’s security procedures to those implemented by Lockheed Martin, the defense contractor that manages the Sandia National Laboratories.

The council, a collection of two dozen professors, business leaders, UC administrators and former military officials, will report back to Atkinson with its recommendations in September.

Atkinson said he is confident that UC’s role as lab manager will weather any political storm.

“It’s very easy to point fingers,” Atkinson said of the critics reviewing lab security. “The knowledgeable people who have been involved in these reviews realize the university does its job very well.”

Unlike other DOE contractors, Atkinson said, the university does not make a profit in managing the labs. Instead, UC has managed the labs since their inception in the 1940s and early ‘50s as “a public service to the nation,” he said.

“I don’t believe there is another entity that could draw the level of intellectual talent to the labs as the University of California does,” he said. “It’s the flag of the university that brings in the talent.”

About 17,000 UC employees work as scientists, engineers, researchers and at other jobs in the three labs, which have a combined budget of $2.8 billion.

UC gets $25 million a year to manage the labs. About $11 million covers overhead and administrative expenses, said lab spokesman Rick Malaspina. The other $14 million is “a performance management fee,” used to cover unallowable costs, fines and penalties.

After deducting costs and penalties, UC puts the remainder into the labs--usually about $10 million to $12 million a year--to augment research.