Los Alamos chief halts work over lapses

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – The Los Alamos National Laboratory director, tired of security lapses at the northern New Mexico lab, has brought nearly all work there to a standstill and is calling scofflaw “cowboys” out for a final showdown.

Pete Nanos took the unprecedented step Friday of broadening a stand-down of classified work to include all lab activities.

“We are doing this as part of an effort to ensure this laboratory operates safely and meets our national security obligations,” Nanos said in a memo to all employees.

He said there will be exceptions to his order, so that critical missions and essential national security functions continue unabated.

Nanos made the announcement a day after the University of California, which manages the lab for the Department of Energy, ordered him to halt classified work at the lab. The action followed a security lapse last week in which two electronic data storage devices turned up missing.

Nanos blamed “cowboys” who are disobeying rules on the handling of sensitive material. “I don’t care how many people I have to fire to make it stop,” he said.

“If you think the rules are silly, if you think compliance is a joke, please resign now and save me the trouble,” he said.

The lab’s most recent embarrassment occurred Wednesday, when an intern at the lab suffered a serious eye injury while working on an experiment involving a laser.

Researchers thought the laser wasn’t producing a light when it entered the 20-year-old intern’s eye, causing a retinal lesion, said lab spokesman Jim Fallin. The intern was to be flown to Baltimore to see a specialist.

“She’s in good spirits,” Fallin said of the intern. “I’m told that while this injury is considered serious, it’s not expected that she’ll lose vision in her eye.”

Nanos told employees that the labwide stand-down isn’t due to a lack of confidence in them, but rather an opportunity to reflect on their responsibilities and make sure they can do their jobs safely and securely.

While lab spokesman Kevin Roark acknowledged Friday’s decision was extreme, he said: “We know here at the lab that it’s the right thing to do.”

The stand-down is open-ended, with some lab departments expected to resume work sooner than others. Nanos said officials will review every department’s activities and recommend that work resume only when all compliance issues have been addressed.

With classified work at a standstill Friday at the birthplace of the atomic bomb, some observers wondered whether the latest security shake-up at Los Alamos is the fatal blow for its embattled manager.

Scientists spent much of the day inventorying the lab’s stock of electronic data storage devices after the two turned up missing last week.

Lab and Energy Department officials said little about what’s missing – the DOE calls them computer disks – and how they may have disappeared.

Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham ordered two of his top people to personally oversee the lab inquiry.

“If this doesn’t knock the University of California out of its contract, then nothing will,” said Steven Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientists’ project on government secrecy.

He said the university’s ability to run the lab “is in question as never before.”

University officials haven’t said whether they’ll compete for the contract, which expires next year, although regents have told staff to prepare as though they will.

Abraham opted for the first-ever contract competition last year after a management and purchasing scandal at Los Alamos cost top managers their jobs and prompted an overhaul of business practices.

Over the last year, employees couldn’t find a recordable data storage device, nine floppy disks and a large-capacity storage disk containing classified information. Lab officials believe the material was destroyed.

“These repeated incidences certainly do not help the University of California as the Los Alamos contract competition moves forward,” said Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., a longtime university supporter.

Robert Foley, the university’s vice president of laboratory management, said he believes scientists have been reluctant to blow the whistle on colleagues who don’t follow the rules.