Two breaking news items today that relate to security — or a frightening lack thereof — at US government-run nuclear labs Sandia and Los Alamos. First, an item from my Wired News colleague Noah Shachtman, on Defensetech blog:
Los Alamos National Laboratory director Pete Nanos shut down the country's leading nuclear weapons lab on Friday, after a set of classified computer disks disappeared, and a student was hit in the eye with a powerful laser beam — all in the space of a week.
"As of today, Director Nanos has suspended all Operations at the Laboratory," an internal e-mail obtained by Wired News read. "This is a very serious step."
"This willful flouting of the rules must stop, and I don't care how many people I have to fire to make it stop. If you think the rules are silly, if you think compliance is a joke, please resign now and save me the trouble," Nanos added in a separate e-mail to Los Alamos employees.
And separately today, this press release was issued by Sandia National Laboratories:
Sandia National Laboratories has located a floppy disk that had turned up missing in a recent inventory. The floppy disk, which had been marked classified, was found about 1 p.m. today (Friday). Sandia had reported the disk as missing June 30 in a wall-to-wall inventory. (…)
Sandia Corporation President and Laboratories Director C. Paul Robinson said: "We are relieved the disk has been found. But in my mind, the nature of the near miss of this recent incident is far too close for comfort. We must find better ways and procedures for ensuring the protection of such material."
Link to Los Alamos shutdown post on Defensetech blog, and related Wired News story
here.
Sandia National Laboratories press release: Link. Sandia was also hit earlier this month with a $3.1 million state fine for breaking environmental laws: Link. Image: Trinity Site explosion, 10 seconds after explosion, July 16, 1945. From the online historic photo archive of the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
