Procedures at Los Alamos Questioned

Los Alamos National Laboratory has blamed a lax attitude among scientists and engineers for the loss this month of two computer disks that contain classified information, but a high-level entourage from Washington has learned that security procedures at the New Mexico facility also have some serious problems.

The disks were stored in a small safe in a hallway near a soft drink machine. Access to the safe’s contents was governed by an honor system because the official custodian was nowhere in sight of the safe.

Eleven employees had the combination to the safe’s lock, but all of them have denied taking the disks. And about 200 laboratory employees have access to the building, and any of them could walk up to the safe and not be under surveillance.

The details about the safe were unearthed by Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee who visited the lab this week.

“It was just put down at the end of a hallway, and it looks to me like it was put there because there was space,” Barton said Tuesday. “I don’t think there was any strategic reason it was put there. There weren’t any barriers, and there weren’t surveillance cameras.”

Classified information in most defense and nuclear weapons facilities are always locked up and monitored by a custodian who is supposed to keep records of each withdrawal and deposit to the safe. By placing the safe outside the view of its custodian, the lab may have breached conventional practices, if not security rules.

The security lapse has reinforced calls for the lab, as well as other nuclear weapons facilities, to eliminate all types of removable computer disks and tapes so that employees would not be able to physically remove large amounts of data.

“The systems they have are not adequate and have to be changed,” Barton said.

So far, laboratory security officials do not believe the disks were lost to espionage and have no reason to think that they have fallen into the wrong hands, Barton said, though the FBI is monitoring the case.

An Energy Department spokeswoman said the lab was leading an investigation.

Exactly what is on the disks remains unknown, though the lab has indicated that the disks contained information for an upcoming test, suggesting some type of technical information.

If so, the loss could pose serious harm should the disks find their way to foreign powers or terrorists.

“Nobody said we don’t need to be too worried about this because this is not the kind of material that is going to hurt us if it falls into the wrong hands. Just the opposite,” Barton said.

The security lapses, which include the improper use of e-mails to send classified information and earlier losses of classified data, go back to the mid-1990s and have triggered a sharp response by the Energy Department, which oversees the nation’s nuclear weapons complex.

On Tuesday, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham ordered a suspension of all activities that involve computer disks and removable computer drives. Such work already was shut down last week by lab director Pete Nanos.

Nanos has acknowledged the lab had serious problems and said he would fire employees who refuse to follow the stricter security procedures that would be put in place.

Nanos’ tough talk may foster a culture at the lab that discourages employees from admitting mistakes, according to union officials. Cases of missing computer drives are not uncommon, but many employees do not come forward because they fear retaliation.

“It has gone on for ages: People don’t report when things are missing because they’re afraid of the consequences from their managers and from the press,” said Betty Gunther, a union official who has worked at the lab for 22 years.

“Usually, it gets found.”

Nanos is under intense pressure from Washington. Abraham’s order transfers authority to restart activities to Deputy Energy Secretary Kyle McSlarrow and National Nuclear Security Administration director Linton Brooks. The Energy Department announcement said resumption of activities at the lab would occur in phases.

No routine activities at the lab have resumed, according to James Fallin, director of public affairs at the lab.

“The department will continue to insist that the University of California, which operates Los Alamos, take strong measures to ensure that the laboratory corrects the systematic flaws that allowed this problem to occur,” Abraham’s announcement said. “To bolster this effort, the local site office will be augmented with additional security specialists from DOE headquarters.”

The University of California said it “strongly supports and is working with Secretary Abraham in his efforts to address the security and safety matters.”

The problems at the lab could further jeopardize the university system’s ability to retain its contract to run the lab.

The contract will be put up for bids next year, the first time UC has had to compete for the job since World War II.