View Full Version : Problems at Los Alamos nuclear research facility (UPDATE)
NUKE LAB CONTRACT: AMNESIA ATTACK
Imagine, for a moment, that you had held your job for the last sixty years. And then the boss wanted you to re-apply for your job, all over again. But your past performance over the decades – that would barely count, when you filled out the application.
You'd call that kind of a mixed, message, right? But it's exactly what the Energy Department did yesterday, when it began to put the Los Alamos National Laboratory's contract up for bid, for the first time ever.
Since the days of Oppenheimer, the country's premier nuclear lab has been run solely by the University of California. But after a seemingly-endless series of scandals, security breaches, and financial shenanigans, the Department of Energy finally decided it might be a good idea to let other universities and companies compete for the multi-billion contract, too.
But in its draft request for proposal, issued Wednesday, the Energy Department made it clear that Los Alamos' recent past – the missing secrets, the injured employees, the censored whisteblowers, the millions pilfered from government accounts – didn't matter a whole lot. Proposals will be judged on eight, point-scored criteria that will add up to 1,000 points, the Associated Press notes. Science and technology will get 325 points, lab operations, 175; key personnel, 150. But, according to the Albuquerque Journal, "past performance, going back five years, will account for only 75 points on the scale."
Sounds like a stacked deck to me.
THERE'S MORE: Tongue buried deep, deep in cheek, the lefty lab critics of Nuclear Watch of New Mexico have declared their intention to bid for control of Los Alamos.
Source: http://www.defensetech.org/archives/001248.html
LOS ALAMOS CAVEMAN CAUGHT
From the truly weird files...
Authorities have evicted a man from a cave on Los Alamos National Laboratory land where they say he apparently lived for years with the comforts of home — a wood-burning stove, solar panels connected to car batteries for electricity and a satellite radio.
Los Alamos Deputy Fire Chief Doug Tucker said Roy Michael Moore's hideaway, which also was equipped with a bed and a glass front door, was discovered earlier Oct. 13 after a Department of Energy employee working at the Los Alamos site office noticed smoke wafting from the cave in a heavily wooded, steep canyon.
The employee reported the smoke to the fire department. Tucker said the smoke came from Moore's wood-burning stove.
Ten marijuana plants were found outside the cave. Moore, 56, has been charged with possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia, according to court documents. He pleaded not guilty and was released on bond.
Wired News notes that "a Lab spokesman, who said the camp was about 50 yards from his office door, insisted Moore was not a 'security threat.'"
NUKE LAB FRAUDSTERS COP A PLEA
The men who helped start the current wave of scandals at Los Alamos pled guilty yesterday to charges of conspiracy and mail fraud, the AP reports.
Peter Bussolini, 66, and Scott Alexander, 42, are both facing 12 to 18 months in jail for making fishy purchases with taxpayer money. I mean, really fishy -- gas grills, CB radios, picnic tables, all for a "government emergency command center," supposedly.
Ex-police chiefs Glenn Walp and Steve Doran were brought in to investigate Bussolini, Alexander, and other slippery lab characters. But Walp and Doran were fired, once they started uncovering widespread fraud.
That got the attention of Congress, and the press. Hearings were held of Capitol Hill. And, eventually, all of the lab's top managers were forced out.
But the renewed scrutiny didn't end there. Security lapses and safety breaches kept coming to light – over and over again. Eventually, the lab had to be largely shut down – a reboot, of sorts, to get employees to start taking regulations seriously. That restart, begun in July, still isn't completely done.
Anyway, here's a partial list of some of the things Bussolini and Alexander bought on your dime:
5 Genesis Gold barbeque gas grills
1 19" Panasonic television/VCR combination set
4 Cobra 75 WV CB radios
3 30 Watt solar panels
3 automatic double gate openers w/ remotes
2 Wyoming saws
8 picnic tables
4 sage-colored Cabela Deluxe Arm Chair
38 chamois shirts
15 pairs of thinsulate gloves
152 assorted knives, including 8 "SOG M37 Seal Pup Knives"
13 motorcycle helmets
12 headlamps
5 ULT Command Center monitors
24 camping lanterns
4 olive drab ATV covers
1 Carhart XXXL coat
3 pair New Balance hiking boots
15 sleeping bags
4 sleeping pads
4 reclining loungers
4 "Portable Buddy Heaters"
6 parkas
5 "Portable Catalytic Heaters"
4 "Pocket Chain Saws"
4 "Deluxe Ratchet Pruners"
6 knife-sharpeners
6 Magellan Map 330M GPS units
8 pocket & micro torches
3 goretex jackets
4 stand-up heaters
3 pairs of "Polarized Lenses"
4 Rangesafe Ear Muffs
4 "Ultimate 10 Hearing Protectors"
NO SECRET DISKS FOR NUKE LABS
Stop using classified disks -- everywhere.
That's the order Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham handed down today, telling the country's entire nuclear weapons complex to lay off the use of classified CDs, Zip disks, floppies and portable hard drives until new training and procedures are put in place.
As Defense Tech readers know, both the Los Alamos and Sandia national labs have had problems in recent weeks keeping track of their secrets. The problem has gotten so bad at Los Alamos that the entire place is shut down, pending a security review.
"Under the plan approved by Secretary Abraham, each DOE [Department of Energy] facility will conduct a stand-down of operations involving CREM [Classified Removable Electronic Media] beginning Monday July 26," according to a department press release. The plan includes:
* A 100% initial physical inventory of accountable CREM and weekly inventories thereafter.
* After operational restart is approved, sites will formally enter all CREM containing Secret Restricted Data or above into accountability.
* All accountable CREM will be maintained in approved repositories under the direct control of authorized and trained custodians.
* A formal checkout process for all accountable CREM will be initiated. Access to repositories storing accountable CREM will be strictly limited to authorized custodians.
* Prior to restart, an independent validation team will verify that the protocols are in effect.
* Exceptions will be allowed only under extraordinary circumstances. All exceptions and restarts will be approved by the Deputy Secretary of Energy personally.
LOS ALAMOS SCIENTISTS SPOOKED
There's something missing from all the hubbub about security breaches and safety violations and political maneuverings over at Los Alamos: a sense of how the lab's 12,000 employees feel about having their workplace shut down.
The answer, in a word, is spooked.
Los Alamos' scientists and researchers have been through scandals before. Wen Ho Lee. Missing hard drives. Fired whistleblowers. Sports cars bought with lab credit cards. And, through it all, they've stayed supremely confident in their ability to ride out the storms.
Take last winter, for example. Lab director John Browne had just been shown the door, for a series of shenanigans that had happened under his watch. Congress was calling for new security measures. The Los Alamos employees basically told Washington not to bother.
"We've got a very smart population that's quickly able to realize if an initiative for safety or security is a waste of time. And they get torqued when it is," one scientist told me.
But now, lab director Pete Nanos has suspended just about all work at the lab. He's threatened mass firings to get employees in line. It's been a big ol' slap in the face to the research community there.
"Although I learned of the stand down when it was first announced last Friday, it still hit me in the gut, this weekend, to see the electronic signs around the Laboratory reading 'LANL [Los Alamos National Lab] work suspension. Contact supervisor on arrival.' Folks like me have a lot invested in this place, and, for better or worse, a lot of our life is in our work. Being turned away from that work is wrenching," one employee wrote in an e-mail.
The town of Los Alamos is feels like a neutron bomb hit the place, according to the Albuquerque Tribune. At the lab, work has been replaced with inventory checks, risk assessments, and safety training. The cafeteria is shut down. The Los Alamos PR department is brushing up on how to avoid carpal tunnel syndrome, since that's the kind of injury they are most likely to get.
It's giving everyone time to contemplate the long-term fate of Los Alamos. The University of California (UC) has been running the place since it opened, during World War II. Now, the Energy Department is going to put that $2.2 billion-per-year contract up for competitive bid in 2005, for the first time.
Losing UC's guidance would be a near-fatal blow to Los Alamos, researchers worry. The place has a well-deserved reputation for big breakthroughs and unfettered, blue sky research. But the free-wheeling intellectualism needed to make these leaps, several researchers argued, would only be possible if a world-class university like California stayed in charge of the lab. That seems increasingly less likely, after the latest wave in negative attention. Several UC regents are wondering why they should continue bothering with this mess.
"Maybe our last chance has already come and gone," said one Los Alamos scientist. "Maybe we're already over the cliff."
On Thursday at 10 a.m., Nanos has announced a mandatory, all-hands meeting at the lab. The title: "survival."
NOT AGAIN! LOS ALAMOS LOSES SECRET DISK
It's become a recurring nightmare for managers at the nation's most important nuclear weapons lab: a hard drive or disk, filled with classified information, goes missing. And suddenly, Los Alamos officials, trying to remerge from years of scandal, have a whole lot of explaining to do.
The latest episode came to light Thursday, after Los Alamos admitted that, since a Monday inventory check, its custodians hadn't been able to find a "classified removable electronic media," or CREM -- disks and drives inscribed with the country's secrets.
A Los Alamos press release played down the incident, calling it "a single accounting discrepancy (that) in no way constitutes a compromise of national security." Los Alamos has tens of thousands of removable hard drives, discs and memory sticks. When one can't be found, it's usually because of something innocent, like "administrative errors" or outdated machinery.
But lab critics were hearing none of it.
"Can't they ever get anything right?" said Los Alamos security consultant-turned-whistleblower Glenn Walp. "They take the same old corporate line: 'It's not us, it's the system.' How refreshing it would be if someone at that place would have the backbone to admit they screwed up."
My Wired News story has details.
THERE'S MORE: After deadline, the office of Rep. Chris Shays, who's been all over the nuclear security issue, e-mailed with the following statement:
The most recent event of another missing Department of Energy (DOE) computer is just the latest manifestation of longstanding, almost cultural, security problems at some national laboratory facilities. Some time ago, Senator Grassley and I asked the General Accounting Office (GAO) to examine whether DOE has effectively organized efforts to secure national laboratory assets and data. We expect to receive preliminary result from that review late this summer.
I applaud Secretary Abraham's recent initiative to strengthen security over sensitive information and facilities. However, DOE's plan to initiate those changes in phases over a five year period is too long. Security enhancement should be identified immediately and implemented more quickly, before missing keys or lost computer discs cause real damage to national security."
ABRAHAM TO LOS ALAMOS: GET A CLUE
Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham has heard from his top deputies about the security situation at Los Alamos. And he is pissed.
Despite the Los Alamos shut down, despite the threats of mass firings by lab director Pete Nanos, "some within the laboratory work force fail to understand the seriousness of the situation. This clearly illustrates the need both for immediate, effective and permanent corrective action," Abraham said in a statement.
House Energy and Commerce Committee chair Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) -- Los Alamos' top overseer in Congress -- took things a step further, threatening possible criminal probes. "This may turn into intentional disregard for the rules or an espionage investigation led by the FBI," Barton told the Washington Post after returning from a tour of the laboratory Monday.
THERE'S MORE: With the amount of criticism the University of California is taking for its management of the nuclear weapons lab, it's not surprising that the line to replace the university is getting longer.
The newest potential suitor for Los Alamos and its $2.2 billion management contract: Texas A&M. According to the Daily Texan, the school system joins the University of Texas and "10 other private companies that have sent a formal notice of interest in the New Mexico weapons lab to the National Nuclear Security Administration, which will conduct the bidding process in the fall."
LOS ALAMOS SHUT DOWN
Los Alamos National Laboratory director Pete Nanos shut down the country's leading nuclear weapons lab on Friday, after a set of classified computer disks disappeared, and a student was hit in the eye with a powerful laser beam -- all in the space of a week.
"As of today, Director Nanos has suspended all Operations at the Laboratory," an internal e-mail obtained by Wired News read. "This is a very serious step."
"This willful flouting of the rules must stop, and I don't care how many people I have to fire to make it stop. If you think the rules are silly, if you think compliance is a joke, please resign now and save me the trouble," Nanos added in a separate e-mail to Los Alamos employees.
It's a nearly unprecedented move, lab-watchers said. The only other time in recent memory that the entire facility was shut down was in 2000, when the Cerro Grande forest fire tore through Bandelier National Monument, on Los Alamos' border. The suspension couldn't come at a more delicate moment. The lab is under fire for losing track of its classified material three times in the last eight months. One of Los Alamos' chief overseers in Congress, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Joe Barton (R-Texas), is due at the Lab on Monday for security inspections.
My Wired News story will have details. It should be up by 9 or 9:30pm eastern time, I'm told.
THERE'S MORE: Here's the full text of Nanos' message:
>
> To/MS: All Employees
> From/MS: G. Peter Nanos, DIR, MS A100
> Phone/Fax: 7-5101/Fax 7-2997
> Symbol: DIR-04-242
> Date: July 16, 2004
> Subject: Suspension of All Activities
>
> Suspension of All Activities
>
> The Senior Executive Team and I have taken the extraordinary step of broadening the work suspension to include all activities at the Laboratory. We are doing this as part of an effort to ensure this Laboratory operates safely and meets our national security obligations. This action is not due to lack of confidence in your ability to do your jobs, nor is it punitive in any way. I'm simply convinced that we need time to reflect on our shared responsibilities and on how we do our jobs.
>
> In extending this suspension from classified to all activities, the SET and I have asked for a point-to-point risk assessment of all the Laboratory's day-to-day activities. I've asked your managers to provide each of you the information you need to comply with this suspension of work, and they will tell you what will be required before we resume work. This will be a staggered restart; some low-risk organizations will be back at work quickly, while the process may take more time for others. The overall duration will depend on the formalities, complexities and risks identified in each part of the Laboratory's operations. I've asked Ed Wilmot, Los Alamos Site Office Manager to loan us all the expertise available at LASO, and his safety and security team will be working with us as partners in this process. Of course, there will be exceptions for critical missions and essential functions. I will examine critical aspects of our national security mission on a case-by-case basis and grant a limited number of exceptions for work that must be sustained during the suspension. However, those functions given an exception must still identify vulnerabilities and implement action plans addressing such vulnerabilities.
>
> We will be reviewing every organization's activities as well as their performance. I am insisting that every group leader talk to each of his or her employees, work with them to analyze the safety, security and environmental risks, and recommend restart to his or her division only when convinced all the local compliance issues have been addressed. Division leaders, in turn, will follow the same process with their associate directors. In no case will I authorize a restart until I'm absolutely convinced that each organization will not risk further compromise of safety, security and environment. I've asked all Laboratory managers to talk with their employees one on one to make sure they understand their roles in ensuring a safe work environment and vigilant focus on security. This is NOT an e-mail exercise; I want eye-to-eye contact.
>
> As I said during Wednesday's all-hands meeting, I want you to be aware how serious this situation is, and I will keep you informed about what will be happening in the next few days. This week I traveled to Washington D.C. and to Oakland where I met with our customers, members of Congress, UC Regents and University management. Frankly, nobody understands how we have gotten ourselves into this mess. I told them that, in accordance with our policies, people will be terminated if they ignore the safety, security and environmental regulations that are at the core of what we do here. I emphasized to everyone I met with that this willful flouting of the rules must stop, and I don't care how many people I have to fire to make it stop. If you think the rules are silly, if you think compliance is a joke, please resign now and save me the trouble.
>
> Energy Secretary Abraham announced yesterday that his Deputy, Kyle McSlarrow, will personally take over the investigation into the most recent CREM incident. In fact, Secretary Abraham ordered Deputy Secretary McSlarrow to use "all available mechanisms" to find the missing CREM, including polygraphs. McSlarrow will be visiting the Laboratory on Monday morning. They will see first-hand the vaults and other locations that are the focus of the CREM investigation, and hear from some of the managers involved in an attempt to understand exactly what happened. They will be accompanied by Representative Joe Barton from Texas, who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and Rep. Diana Degette from Colorado, a committee member. President Dynes, UC Board of Regents chairman Gerald Parsky, and other regents plan to visit soon as well, and their message could not be more clear: the culture at LANL must change and it must change now if UC is to continue as lab manager.
>
> You may already have seen media accounts of what individuals are saying about the laboratory and these recent events. Perhaps this outside view will help you understand just how serious this situation has become.
>
> People who believe their dedication to science or to our mission supercedes our commitments to safety, security and environmental compliance put us all at risk. This erroneous belief puts our personal safety on the job, our nation's security which depends on protecting classified information, and the institution to which we've dedicated our careers at risk. After the all-hands meeting, I received a lot of feedback from you and I appreciate the time and thoughtfulness you put into your messages. I was especially gratified by one note in which a group of employees talked about the "institutional embarrassment" of the current situation and their collective sense of outrage at the actions of a tiny minority.
>
> I've asked all of your managers to truly lead and to step up to this challenge for the sake of their employees and our nation's trust. As leaders, I want them to take a more active role in supervising the activities of those for whom they are responsible. I've asked them to personally ensure that each employee is working safely and securely, and to stop any activity that concerns them. When we resume work, I ask one thing of you: a dedication to safety, security and compliance that is equal to your dedication to the Laboratory's mission. Your fellow citizens deserve nothing less.
THERE'S MORE: Since the days of Oppenheimer, Los Alamos has had a history of security and safety problems. The AP gives a brief chronology here.
(all other articles are from defensetech.org as well)
TEXAS DROPS NUKE LAB BID
Despite year after year of scandals, safety lapses, and swiss cheese security, it looks like the University of California might keep on running Los Alamos, the country's most important nuclear weapons lab.
According to an (as-of-yet) unconfirmed report, "the University of Texas (UT) will announce in tomorrow's Dallas Morning News that it will NOT bid" on Los Alamos' management contract. UT was considered one of California's biggest competitors for control of the lab – despite some particularly tenacious student opposition. Another major candidate, Lockheed Martin, which manages the nearby Sandia National Laboratories, dropped out of the race last summer. Texas A&M did the same in December.
None of this is particularly surprising, of course. California has had an uncontested contract to run the lab since its inception back in the 1940's. Energy Department officials finally agreed to put the $2 billion per year deal up for competitive bidding after the firing of two ex-police chiefs brought into the lab to invesigate corruption. But in their initial request for Los Alamos bids, those officials put together a set of criteria that heavily, heavily favored the incumbent. No wonder no one is interested in the job.
Source: www.defensetech.org
Friday, January 14, 2005
UT Chancellor to Recommend University Not Pursue LANL Contract
By Adam Rankin and Mark Oswald
Of the Journal
The chancellor of the University of Texas is recommending that the school not bid on the contract to operate Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Michael Warden, a spokesman for the University of Texas system of campuses, confirmed Thursday night that UT chancellor Mark G. Yudof will announce his recommendation against a LANL bid today.
Yudof's recommendation will go to the UT Board of Regents at a Feb. 18 meeting, Warden said.
"The board will still have to approve it," Warden said. "However, I can say I think the regents will give great weight to the chancellor's recommendation."
Warden said he couldn't say much about Yudof's reasons for coming down against seeking the $30-million-a-year contract to run the Los Alamos lab.
"He said there are a number of factors that have resulted in him coming to that conclusion, and he will articulate those at the meeting on Feb. 18," Warden said.
The federal Department of Energy has put the LANL operating contract out for bid for the first time ever following years of security and management problems at the nuclear weapons lab. The University of California has run LANL since it was created for the Manhattan Project to develop the atomic bomb during World War II. The current contract expires in September.
The UT regents voted in February 2004 to spend up to $500,000 to prepare a possible bid for the LANL contract. There was speculation that the Texas school might have the inside track because of the influence of President Bush, a Texan and former Texas governor.
But UT officials in August expressed reservations about pursuing the contract after Lockheed Martin Corp., a potential bidding partner with UT, announced it would not compete to take over LANL.
Also, anti-nuclear and peace activists have urged UT to stay away from the New Mexico weapons lab.
Texas A&M University, which also had expressed interest in the LANL bidding, already has dropped out of the competition.
John Pruett of UT Watch, a group opposed to a bid by the University of Texas, had heard about Yudof's recommendation Thursday afternoon.
"It's great news to us," said Pruett, a UT senior.
"In general, the university shouldn't be involved in the development of nuclear weapons," Pruett said. "Our university's time and resources could be spent on better science than developing nuclear science."
Asked for comment about the UT developments, Chris Harrington, a spokesman for the University of California, said, "UC has always said that we are going to continue to prepare as if we are going to compete regardless of what the competitive field looks like."
The UC regents still haven't made a final decision on submitting a bid to continue operating LANL. Harrington said the UC regents will get an updated report on the California school's preparations for the contract competition next week.
Other entities that have expressed interest in the LANL contract include Northrop Grumman Technical Services Inc., Burns and Roe Enterprises, Computer Sciences Corp. and Titan Corp.
Source: http://www.abqjournal.com/north/288294north_news01-14-05.htm
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