From Capitol Hill Blue
FUBAR
Nuke Data Missing From New Mexico
By
Staff and Wire Reports
Aug 19, 2004, 21:41
An inventory has found another case of missing data involving nuclear
weapons, this time at the Energy Department's regional office in
Albuquerque, N.M., the department disclosed Thursday.
The Energy Department said that an "accounting discrepancy" involving
three copies of a "controlled removable electronic media" - or CREM - was
found at the regional office as part of the nationwide inventory of such
devices.
The inventory was ordered a month ago after two CREM data devices were
reported missing at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, also in New
Mexico. The Albuquerque facility, part of the DOE's National Nuclear
Security Administration, coordinates activities with the Los Alamos
weapons lab.
Bryan Wilkes, an NNSA spokesman, said that the inventory discovered
three copies of a single CREM unaccounted for. He declined to elaborate
further except to say the device contained information involving nuclear
weapons.
NNSA Administrator Linton Brooks said that all classified work
involving the computer data storage devices has been halted at the
Albuquerque office, pending completion of the investigation.
"I am disappointed that we have found another case of lax procedures in
protecting classified information," said Brooks in a statement.
Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham on July 23 ordered that work involving
CREM - disks or other removable computer storage devices - be halted at
all the government's nuclear weapons facilities until inventories of the
devices are conducted and new security procedures put in place.
The missing device at the Albuquerque office was discovered as part of
that inventory, said Wilkes.
Meanwhile, investigators, despite extensive searches, have yet to find
the two CREM devices that were reported missing at the Los Alamos
laboratory in the New Mexico mountains 100 miles north of Albuquerque. The
investigation into that incident was continuing.
No one was suggesting that the classified information - either at Los
Alamos or in the DOE regional office - had been stolen or that the
disappearances involved espionage. However, DOE officials have been
concerned about lax procedures and security involving the handing of such
devices.
"I expect NNSA employees, both federal and contractor, to adhere to the
highest standards of performance" when using such data in removable
computer devices, said Brooks.
Aside from this latest case, the nationwide CREM inventory review so
far has produced no incidents or discrepancies, said Wilkes.
Many of the sites including the Savannah River nuclear facility in
South Carolina, the Y-12 facility at Oak Ridge, Tenn., and the Pantex
facility in Texas have resumed normal operations, according to the
department.
Concerns over security and safety at the nuclear weapons lab came to a
head in July, after two computer disks containing classified information
were reported missing at the Los Alamos lab. Almost all work at the lab
was shut down and 23 employees were suspended as a result of the
investigation into the security lapses.
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National Nuclear Security Administration www.nnsa.doe.gov
Los Alamos National Laboratory http://www.lanl.gov
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