July 19, 2007


Breaking Story on Nuclear Secrets Stolen from Oak Ridge
For Immediate Release
Contact: Beth Daley or Peter Stockton (202) 347-1122

UPDATE: Initial reports wrongly identified the facility where the contract employee arrested by the FBI worked.  The facility was actually the East Tennessee Technology Park was once a site where uranium was enriched for nuclear weapons and is currently a nuclear material clean up site.  Follow the link to the Knoxville, Tennessee U.S. Attorney’s Office’s press release on the arrest.

WNBC and other outlets report today that: “a contract worker is accused of stealing nuclear secrets from the Oak Ridge National Lab in Tennessee . Investigators said the worker wanted to sell the secrets to a "foreign country.” The information concerned how to enrich uranium.

"The FBI should be congratulated for their role in thwarting this situation. However, a series of troubling security breaches show that the nuclear weapons complex simply does not take security as seriously as it should," said Peter Stockton, POGO investigator and advisor to a former Secretary of the Department of Energy. Numerous Government Accountability Office and Department of Energy Inspector General reports have documented security failures of the nuclear weapons complex.

POGO has argued for years that the DOE should consolidate the number of nuclear weapons sites from 13 sites to 7 in order to minimize the cost of security and the potential targets. But bureaucratic stalling has kept these plans from moving forward. Esp. see "Nuclear Lock" (pdf) by POGO's Nick Schwellenbach and Peter Stockton, Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, November/December 2006.

Below is a list of major security failures in the nuclear weapons complex from Wen Ho Lee which POGO recently compiled. In addition, POGO issued a report last year on the physical security of Oak Ridge National Lab and Y-12 National Security Complex.
Nuclear Weapons Follies:
Major Security and Safety Failures of the Nuclear Weapons Complex since Wen Ho Lee

July, 2007 - Los Alamos lab worker with "highest possible security clearance" arrested in cocaine drug bust. July 6, 2007. SOURCE: AP, http://www.krqe.com/Global/story.asp?S=6757207

June, 2007 - Los Alamos board member sends highly classified email message unsecured, compromising "the most serious breach of U.S. national security. SOURCE: Time Magazine, http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1632905,00.html

May, 2007 – POGO notifies DOE Secretary Bodman that Pantex nuclear weapons plant has roughly 200 security officers protecting its facility during a union strike even though it normally has 537. SOURCE: POGO, http://pogo.org/p/homeland/hl-070510-pantex.html

October 20, 2006 - Los Alamos National Laboratory classified information found in a meth lab drug bust in a trailer park. The incident, in part, causes the resignation of National Nuclear Security Administration Administrator Linton Brooks in January, 2007.  The DOE IG finds that the Lab still lacks adequate safeguards for approving clearances and handling classified information, despite years of foibles. SOURCE: POGO, http://pogo.org/p/homeland/ha-061003-lanl.html; the House Energy Commerce Committee, http://energycommerce.house.gov/Press_110/110nr2.shtml; and Time Magazine, http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1612912,00.html

June, 2006 - NNSA Administrator Linton Brooks informs Congress that computer hackers got access to detailed personal information, including Social Security numbers for about 1,500 DOE contract workers in September, 2005. Yet neither the workers whose personal information was compromised, nor the DOE's cyber-security head were notified about the incident.  SOURCE: AP, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13232863/

May, 2006 - A former Los Alamos employee files suit, saying "she was forced to resign from the lab in January because she refused to keep quiet about a work accident that damaged her lungs." SOURCE: Albuquerque Journal, http://epaper.abqjournal.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=U0ZTLzIwMDYvMDUvMTEjQXIwMDEwNQ==&

August, 2005 - Two employees are exposed to hazardous chemical fumes at Los Alamos . One employee who was contaminated was told to keep working even though she complained of feeling dizzy. She then went on vacation and experienced severe respiratory problems. As a result, she had to be hospitalized for six days. SOURCE: POGO and DOE Occurrence report http://www.pogo.org/p/homeland/ha-050802-lanl.html

July, 2005 - According to a search warrant issued by the U.S. District Court of New Mexico, a Sandia employee has stolen iPods, computers and a robotic dog and sold them on Ebay. SOURCE: POGO, http://www.pogo.org/p/homeland/ha-050701-nuclear.html

July 14, 2005 - A worker contaminated with deadly Americium-241 at Los Alamos goes undetected for 11 days. As a result, contamination is spread from New Mexico to Kansas and Colorado , and later to Pennsylvania when contamination was then shipped through Federal Express. DOE subsequently notes that the University of California which managed Los Alamos would have been fined $1.1 million for the incident (LANL as a nonprofit was exempted from paying), the highest civil penalty ever under its nuclear enforcement program. SOURCE: POGO and DOE Occurrence reports, http://www.pogo.org/p/homeland/ha-050801-radiofedex.html and http://www.pogo.org/p/homeland/ha-060901-lanl.html

February, 2005 - A December, 2004 report finds serious deficiencies in protecting workers and the community from a nuclear release or accident by the Sandia National Laboratory. SOURCE: POGO and DOE report, http://www.pogo.org/p/homeland/ha-050201-sandia.html

September 2004 -- Wackenhut guard fired a weapon accidentally loaded with live ammunition (instead of the dummy rounds that were supposed to be used) during a training exercise in Y-12's cafeteria. The bullet went through a refrigerator and a wall, and ended up hitting a filing cabinet in the next room. SOURCE: POGO, http://www.pogo.org/p/homeland/ho-061001-Y12B.html

September 2, 2004 - Y-12 security guards almost shoot each other in a force-on-force exercise after managers fail to follow proper security protocols. SOURCE: New York Times, http://www.pogo.org/m/hsp/hsp-nytimes-12212004.pdf

July 18, 2004 - POGO release exposes there were 17 incidents involving classified information sent over an unclassified email system at Los Alamos . SOURCE: POGO, http://www.pogo.org/p/homeland/ha-040703-lanl.html

May 20, 2004 - Los Alamos confirms that classified computer media can not be accounted for. On July 23, 2004, the Department of Energy shuts down operations involving Classified Removable Electronic Media (CREM) across the entire nuclear weapons complex. SOURCE: DOE, http://energy.gov/news/1408.htm; POGO, http://www.pogo.org/p/homeland/ha-040502-nuclear.html and Govexec.com, http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/1203/121103a1.htm

December 9, 2003 - Los Alamos confirms that computer disks were identified as lost during an "inventory of classified computer media." In total ten disks were lost. SOURCE: LANL, http://www.lanl.gov/news/index.php/fuseaction/home.story/story_id/1516 and POGO http://www.pogo.org/p/environment/ea-031201-lanl.html

November, 2003 - DOE IG confirms that, in multiple incidents, Lawrence Livermore National Lab lost nine sets of master keys and three magnetic cards, causing it to replace 100,000 locks on 526 buildings at a cost of $1.7 million to the taxpayer. SOURCE: Washington Post, http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A9866-2003Nov6&notFound=true

June 20, 2003 - LANL admits losing plutonium. SOURCE: POGO, http://www.pogo.org/p/environment/ea-030608-lanl.html

June, 2003 - In a letter to DOE Secretary Abraham, Senator Charles Grassley complains that security investigators at Sandia National Lab are retaliated against and confirms the theft of a Verizon van at the Lab noting: "The van was stolen from inside a classified area and crashed undetected through perimeter fences at 5 a.m. in what is described as a `high risk' exit maneuver.It was discovered a day and a half later in a local department store parking lot." SOURCE: New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/23/politics/23SAND.html?ex=1181707200&en=785c8266069e94c2&ei=5070

April, 2003 - William Cleveland, Jr., head of Lawrence Livermore's security office resigns after acknowledging he had an affair with Chinese double agent Katrina Leung, who later pled guilty to lying to the FBI. SOURCE: CNN/AP, http://www.cnn.com/2003/LAW/04/11/fbi.espionage.2/index.html and Washington Times, http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20060524-114732-4291r.htm

March, 20, 2003 - Sandia National Laboratory President announces an investigation finding a variety of security breakdowns including: "security police officers observed eating, watching TV, and sleeping on duty, to theft of government-owned computer parts and software, to disappearance and reappearance of a set of keys to Sandia buildings." SOURCE: Sandia, http://www.sandia.gov/news-center/news-releases/2003/def-nonprolif-sec/secconcerns.html

January 27, 2003 - DOE IG finds that security contractor Wackenhut has been cheating on security tests at the Y-12 nuclear facility for two decades. SOURCE: Associated Press, http://www.pogo.org/m/ep/ep-ap-01272004.pdf

January 15, 2003 - A computer hard drive that contains classified data has been missing from the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) since October 2002, but top officials at the Department of Energy (DOE) have failed to investigate the loss. On January 16, 2003, DOE Secretary Spencer Abraham issues a statement saying: "I am deeply troubled that Los Alamos National Laboratory is unable to account for computer equipment and other materials as part of lab management's inventory control and audit program," SOURCE: DOE & POGO, http://www.pogo.org/p/environment/ea-030113-nuclear-lanl.html and http://www.pogo.org/p/environment/ea-030111-nuclear-lanl.html

November, 2002 - Memo from the Los Alamos Office of Security finds more than 200 missing computers, including from classified black programs. A January 2003 report by the DOE IG later corroborates the memo, scolds Los Alamos for firing the officers who wrote the memo and details security weaknesses. SOURCE: POGO, http://www.pogo.org/p/environment/ea-021105-losalamos-nuclear.html and DOE IG http://www.pogo.org/p/environment/ea-030115-lanl.html

June, 2000 -Two hard drives containing nuclear weapons secrets disappear at Los Alamos . They are mysteriously found several weeks later behind a copy machine. SOURCE: U.S. Senate Republican Policy Committee, http://www.senate.gov/~rpc/releases/1999/df062100.htm and LANL, http://www.lanl.gov/news/index.php/fuseaction/home.story/story_id/1046

May, 2000 - A Department of Energy report states officials at Los Alamos pressured employees to say security at the facility is better than it really is.

March, 1999 - Wen Ho Lee, a Los Alamos nuclear weapons scientist, is investigated by the FBI for allegedly downloading nuclear secrets onto his hard drive.

Founded in 1981, the Project On Government Oversight (POGO) is an independent nonprofit that investigates and exposes corruption and other misconduct in order to achieve a more accountable federal government.

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