In light of a recent security breach at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, as well as other security scares at the nation’s major nuclear research center, the facility is implementing various new security measures.
In October 2006, police found confidential data from the lab on an employee’s personal computer. The lab is co-managed by the University of California.
Kevin Roark, a Los Alamos spokesman, said the laboratory is taking measures to ensure that confidential information will not leave the laboratory and that access to lab research will be limited to the people who are supposed to have it.
“We’re taking a wide variety of physical and cyber security measures,” Roark said. “We underwent a thorough review of all processes and procedures.”
In response to the breach, the lab now has limited and prohibited certain kinds of recording devices in classified-information areas of the facility. Los Alamos officials have also been more careful in monitoring who has access to what in the lab and for what reason, Roark said.
Charles Whitten, a UCLA physics professor, emphasized the importance of security measures at nuclear research labs. He also said security must be conducted in an appropriate manner because it can sometimes prohibit workers from doing their jobs in a timely and complete manner.
“You don’t want the data to be hacked, but you don’t want regulations such that you can’t do your business right,” Whitten said.
Security issues, such as the recent incident, have been a problem for Los Alamos for several years. In 1999, former lab scientist Wen Ho Lee was accused of leaking nuclear secrets to China.
Two years ago, it was reported that two classified computer disks were missing and an intern at the lab was injured in a laser accident. These two incidents combined resulted in Los Alamos being shut down for a year.
It was later found that the missing disks had never existed. Their supposed disappearance was an inventory error.
Due to such security issues as well as the security threats that Sept. 11 posed, the lab has been working on bigger security projects.
Los Alamos has completed construction on secret posts that screen vehicles that enter the property so it is known exactly who is going in and out of the buildings, Roark said.
He also said lab officials have limited access to roadways that enter the most sensitive areas of their facility. Now only employees are granted access.
Lab officials have started to better monitor hardware systems and are implementing new software controls.
But even with the measures the lab has been taking, the House Energy and Commerce Committee has been dissatisfied with the National Nuclear Security Administration’s management of security issues. Last month, the committee introduced a measure to turn back Los Alamos’ security responsibilities to the Department of Energy.
Representative Joe Barton, D-Texas, said that if the security problems are not solved at the Los Alamos lab, he will ask for it to be shut down again.
“There is an absolute inability and unwillingness to address the most routine security issues at this laboratory,” Barton told The Associated Press.
But deputy energy secretary Clay Sell told The Associated Press that the lab most likely will continue running. Sell said it is the only facility where plutonium pits for weapons can be made and the lab is responsible for most of the strategic nuclear weapons stockpile.
Currently, Bush has proposed a $192 million cut to two of the country’s nuclear research labs: Sandia National Laboratory and the Los Alamos lab.
“The budget request is only the first step,” Roark said. “It’s much too early to see how the budget request would impact the laboratory.”
But if the proposal is put into action, it could have a negative effect for the country, said Whitten, who stressed the importance of the research laboratories.
For one, he said, the United States needs to stay competitive with its research.
He added that ideas from the laboratory are used not only for nuclear weapons, but also in many areas that help humans, such as medicine.
With reports from Bruin wire services.