Restructuring Department of Energy considered

Tuesday, June 22, 1999 | 11:10 a.m.

The Department of Energy and 32 senators agreed today that the agency in charge of nuclear weapons, nuclear waste and energy needs drastic changes to become accountable after spy and security scandals.

Former Sen. Warren Rudman, R-N.H., recommended putting either a deputy to the energy secretary in charge of security or creating a semi-autonomous agency in charge of protecting U.S. nuclear weapons secrets.

Sen. Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska, chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said he will amend the intelligence authorization bill to reconstruct the DOE. "This needs immediate action," he said.

Energy Secretary Bill Richardson agreed that the department's record of protecting nuclear weapons secrets was dismal, but he noted that new security czar Edward Curran already reported directly to him. Curran has started security checks on DOE employees this month.

However, senators and the secretary agreed that it is time for immediate change, given the report by Rep. Christopher Cox, R-Calif., revealing nuclear weapons secrets were stolen for 20 years and Rudman's assessment, which was made public last week.

Rudman called security at DOE laboratories such as Los Alamos and Sandia in New Mexico and Lawrence Livermore in California "atrocious."

He cited 100 reports in the past 20 years critical of the complex lines of responsibility between DOE headquarters and field offices such as the Nevada Test Site.

The Test Site was not cited for security lapses at its remote location 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas. However, the site would fall under the nuclear weapons division because its officials stand ready to resume underground nuclear weapons testing. President George Bush stopped U.S. nuclear weapons experiments in 1992 and President Clinton has continued the moratorium.

When the Test Site was created in 1951, it became the "backyard laboratory" for Los Alamos scientists, who created the first atomic bomb.

"It took less than three years to build the first atomic bomb," Rudman said. "But it took four years to fix a lock on a door securing nuclear secrets."

The Test Site and other DOE facilities such as Lawrence Berkeley are also involved in the 70 percent of other DOE activities such as nuclear materials handling, nuclear waste and energy projects that the Rudman presidential report did not address, Richardson said. That may make splitting off a nuclear weapons division difficult.

Rudman urged the joint meeting of Senate committees on commerce, armed services and energy to reform the department by drawing clear lines of accountability for nuclear weapons and materials to the secretary.

Richardson said labs and field offices in the past did not receive direct communication from the energy secretary. He said he is trying to open those lines. He has visited the Test Site and Yucca Mountain twice since his confirmation in August.