19 Employees at Los Alamos Are Suspended

Los Alamos National Laboratory has suspended 19 employees while it investigates security and safety lapses at the nuclear weapons center, lab director Pete Nanos announced Thursday.

The leaves affect 11 individuals who had access to a combination safe that contained classified computer disks that are now missing, as well as four employees held culpable for an accident involving a laser that damaged the eyes of a student intern.

In his first remarks since shutting down operations last week, Nanos said the incidents had caused serious damage to the reputation and revenue base of the lab that would take years to rectify.

The lab has already lost one research contract for a corporate client because it could not meet the schedule, Nanos said.

“This is not unfair; this is not an overreaction,” Nanos said. “It has got to stop. The tolerance of the country is at an end. Los Alamos lab will be shut down unless we can show it is safe, secure and compliant.”

Although Nanos said most of the lab’s 15,000 employees followed proper procedures and rules, some were still engaged in what he termed “passive resistance” to security reforms at the remote New Mexico facility.

University of California officials also acknowledged that the latest incidents had jeopardized the university system’s contract to operate Los Alamos. The contract, up for renewel next year, will be subject to competition for the first time.

“The continuing incidents erode the stature of the university to continue to run the lab,” said S. Robert Foley, University of California vice president for laboratory management

Nanos said the 19 employees, who include high-level supervisors, would not be allowed into the lab during what he termed “investigatory leave,” but would continue to draw salary. Of the 19 employees, 15 are under investigation for the loss of two classified computer disks that were reported missing earlier this month -- 11 who had access to the safe and four other unspecified employees.

If the 15 cannot be cleared of suspicion, they may never be allowed to conduct classified research again because the lab must be certain that its secrets are secure, Nanos said.

Nanos announced the suspensions at a news conference at a theater in the laboratory’s museum, speaking to about a dozen reporters.

Most of the suspended employees work at the lab’s weapons physics directorate, a brain trust for nuclear weapons design. The directorate has six divisions, although lab officials are not saying specifically which one was affected by the security lapse.

Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham this week asked the FBI to begin an investigation. FBI officials in Albuquerque, who had been monitoring the case, said Thursday that an investigation was underway.

In December, Los Alamos suspended two employees after another security lapse. That case involved computer drives or tapes that were supposed to be destroyed, but logbooks did not indicate conclusively that they had been fed into a giant chipper machine used to grind up computer parts.

Nanos declined to say what was on the computer disks, but confirmed that they were made for a presentation. An inventory of classified materials in April and another inventory in December indicated that the disks were in the safe, but lab officials are looking into whether the inventories were faulty.

Although the lab still does not know how the disks were lost, Nanos said, “It was people willfully not following the process.”