Congressman questions Test Site security

SUN WASHINGTON BUREAU

Friday, Feb. 18, 2005 | 1:12 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- A Massachusetts lawmaker is demanding answers from new Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman about security at the Nevada Test Site.

Democratic Rep. Edward Markey fired a letter to Bodman on Thursday outlining several security lapses and asking Bodman whether the private security firm Wackenhut should be allowed to continue to provide security.

"Wackenhut's performance is consistently well below par, and its continued presence at DOE nuclear weapons facilities raises serious questions about the dpartment's ability to secure its nuclear weapons and weapons-usable materials," Markey wrote.

Markey cited two incidents. In an August 2004 "force-on-force" exercise at the Test Site, guards failed to stop a mock terrorist attack on a fortified bunker designed to keep weapons-grade plutonium safe, known as the Device Assembly Facility. There was no nuclear material in the facility at the time.

Markey also referred to a Feb. 11 Energy Department inspector general report that outlines a 2003 incident in which a Wackenhut employee took handguns to a training exercise at the site against regulations.

Officials for the Energy Department's National Nuclear Security Administration, which manages the Test Site, have said the agency has updated guard training and tactics since August.

Test Site facilities are secure, NNSA spokesman Kevin Rohrer said.

"I'm 100 percent confident that all facilities are protected at the appropriate level at the Nevada Test Site," he said.

Wackenhut has been at the Test Site since 1965, Rohrer said. It is being paid $44 million this year. The company earned only 59 percent of its $800,000 performance incentive fee last year, he said.

The company earned a "satisfactory" rating last year after receiving "outstanding" ratings in the previous four years, Rohrer said. The downgrade in rating was due in part to the failed August exercise, he said.