POGO Senior Investigator Peter Stockton Retires

Peter Stockton, a senior investigator at the Project On Government Oversight whose investigations into safety and security shortcomings and mismanagement at the nation’s nuclear laboratories and facilities helped spur many important reforms, has retired.

Among the highlights of Stockton’s work at POGO was his 2006 investigation that exposed a security breach at Los Alamos National Laboratory, a disclosure that led to the resignation of a top official and extensive oversight hearings by the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

His work identifying security issues at federal nuclear facilities also led to the Department of Energy’s decision to remove all bomb-grade nuclear weapons materials from half of its facilities nationwide, including Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission requiring nuclear power plants to improve training and working conditions for security guards.

Before joining POGO in 2002, Stockton was a special assistant to Department of Energy Secretary Bill Richardson and served as his personal troubleshooter on physical and cyber security in the nuclear weapons complex. Prior to that, Stockton spent 22 years as the senior investigator on the House Energy and Power and the House Oversight and Investigations Subcommittees of the Energy and Commerce Committee.

“Peter’s work holding the nuclear weapons complex accountable led to many critical safety and security improvements at federal facilities across the country and made millions of people who live near these sites safer,” said POGO Chief Operating Officer Keith Rutter.