Editorial: Los Alamos falls down on security

Thursday, June 15, 2000 | 9:35 a.m.

The most recent lapse in security at the U.S. Energy Department's Los Alamos National Laboratory is shocking. On Tuesday the DOE confirmed that employees at Los Alamos waited more than three weeks before mentioning to senior department officials last month that two computer hard drives, which contained some of the nation's most sensitive nuclear secrets, were missing. So far it doesn't appear that the secrets were stolen from the Nuclear Emergency Security Team, whose headquarters are in Las Vegas. But even if they were lost or misplaced, that still is an extraordinary failure.

Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., mocked the DOE, half-joking that his hometown library has better security. Stupak noted that if he checked out "Winnie the Pooh" from the library, at least a record would be kept of the book having been removed. Yet this basic step obviously wasn't followed with our nation's top nuclear secrets at Los Alamos since no one can find the computer hard drives. Following allegations of Chinese espionage at Los Alamos, Energy Secretary Bill Richardson told Congress that all was fine at the lab, an assurance that wasn't kept. Congress should look extensively into this matter, and review security at other national laboratories, to ensure that similar mishaps aren't occurring elsewhere.

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