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Security Costs at U.S. Nuke Labs Could Force Closures; Computers Missing at Idaho Site
The United States could save billions of dollars by closing some of its nuclear weapons laboratories or consolidating their nuclear weapons fuel at fewer sites, according to a report to be released this week by the Project on Government Oversight (see GSN, March 4). It costs $740 million each year to safeguard the 13 U.S. nuclear weapons facilities from terrorist attacks, the New York Times reported. That cost is expected to increase. However, the POGO report states that the government could save $2.7 billion over three years by concentrating plutonium and weapon-grade uranium at a limited number of locations. “No one so far has looked at the entire complex, and said, ‘Why do we still need this?’” said Danielle Brian, POGO executive director. Former Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham last year recommended reducing the number of sites containing weapon-grade nuclear materials “to the absolute minimum, consistent with carrying out our missions.” An advisory panel is expected to issue a report on the issue in June, the Times reported. National Nuclear Security Administration chief Linton Brooks questioned details of the POGO report, but acknowledged security problems with some sites. He singled out the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee. “In the Second World War, the threat was spies,” Brooks said. “So you went to a remote valley and you had a pretty good control point to make sure which people went in. If the threat has become a quasimilitary attack force, no sane person would put something in a valley.” The POGO report states that removing nuclear material from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory would save up to $70 million in equipment costs and $315 million over a period of years for labor, according to the Times (Matthew Wald, New York Times, May 7). Meanwhile, 269 computers and disk drives cannot be accounted for at the Idaho National Laboratory, the Associated Press reported. None of the equipment was to be used for processing classified information, laboratory officials said. However, some might contain “export-controlled” information on nuclear technology. Energy Department auditors examining security at the laboratory found personal computers and disk drives that had been left without proper documentation in hallways near unsecured exits, AP reported. The Idaho facility has conducted nuclear and weapons development for the U.S. Navy and stored radioactive waste from nuclear weapons production, according to AP (Associated Press/Yahoo!News, May 7). Elsewhere, Los Alamos National Laboratory Director Peter Nanos announced Friday he will leave the New Mexico facility on May 15 for a job with the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, the Times reported (see GSN, May 6). “It has been a distinct pleasure to work with you,” Nanos said in a letter to Los Alamos workers, “and I will always look back fondly at my time at Los Alamos.” A series of safety and security problems at Los Alamos under Nanos’ two-year tenure, and questions on his management style, might have forced the University of California to push him out as it considers whether to seek to maintain the management contract for the laboratory, experts said. Nanos’ new job will involve planning and administering research and development work at Defense Department agency, the Times reported (William Broad, New York Times, May 7). Acting Director Robert Kuckuck said he would work to resolve the “discord and concern” that have developed at the laboratory, the Los Angeles Times reported. He could not say whether the might undo any of Nanos’ policies. “It’s premature for me to say what I will change,” Kuckuck said (Vartabedian/Hong, Los Angeles Times, May 7).
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