A Times Editorial

Stricter controls at Los Alamos

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 21, 2000

Security at the Los Alamos nuclear lab has gone unhinged. First workers hide for three weeks the disappearance of two computer hard drives that contained U.S., Russian and Chinese nuclear weapons secrets. Then, with FBI agents swarming the place, the hard drives mysteriously reappeared -- found behind a copier in a restricted area that federal agents already had searched twice.

Energy Secretary Bill Richardson said on the Sunday talk shows that espionage likely was not involved. But it is hardly reassuring to think sloppiness caused the security breach. The drives are part of a "kit" that rapid-response teams use to defuse a nuclear accident or crisis. They must be easy to locate to serve any use. That a lab employee could misplace the drives, conceal the loss and smuggle the devices without raising alarm shows that security at Los Alamos is an even bigger problem than most thought.

The department took a good first step by suspending six managers at Los Alamos and appointing two knowledgeable former lawmakers, Republican Howard Baker and Democrat Lee Hamilton, to lead an investigation. The two understand the role Los Alamos plays in advancing U.S. security. They also are respected by the leadership of both parties, which will keep politics from the fallout to a minimum.

Richardson has lost credibility the past year with his repeated promises to correct the ongoing security problems at Los Alamos. The drives contained data that are highly sensitive, including information on warheads and intelligence on foreign nuclear programs. Yet scientists were free to remove materials from the vault without signing a log. It also appears that employees moved freely throughout Los Alamos even as federal agents scoured the facility.

Aside from lax protocols, the department appears plagued with institutional resistance to reporting security breakdowns in a timely manner. In that sense, the recent lapse has a disturbing parallel with the case of Wen Ho Lee, a former Los Alamos scientist awaiting trial on charges he mishandled secrets by copying nuclear information onto an unsecure computer. The image of Los Alamos as a freewheeling workplace is not one that calms the fears of the average American.

Blunt talk from Richardson about security is pointless if it fails to change practices inside the government's labs. The creative freedom scientists need to thrive doesn't preclude strict controls on how data is shared, stored, secured and used. The review by Baker and Hamilton offers the chance to improve on questionable practices that can have terrible consequences. Guarding the nation's nuclear secrets is a responsibility that must not be left to chance or some honor code in the lab.

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