RE: Changes Urged for Nuke Lab Security

["Kent, Michael D" <Michael.D.Kent@nspco.com>]

Is the DOE establishment lost in a haze; or do they exist in a mentality of
everything DOE does is right, everyone else must be wrong?  Does the DOE
really ever look outside their organization to see what the rest of the
world is doing?  I know for many years they were, and are, at the forefront
of new technology, but the basic understanding in some areas has gone by the
wayside.  Maybe it is because the "Old Guard" is slowly passing and things
they took for "common sense" items might not be so common; or that now the
"Bear" is defeated they feel they have no real enemy. 

> ``When the Manhattan Project created the first (nuclear) weapons, 
> the collaborative effort said everyone working had a common need 
> to know,'' Tucker said. ``Today, there is a school of thought that 
> says `I don't need to know everything about a project.''' 
> 
> For example, he said one scientist may be working on the human 
> genome project while another is working on a nuclear weapon 
> design. Both may have the same security clearance, but that 
> doesn't mean they should share classified information, he said. 
> 
> ``Just because you have a clearance doesn't grant you a right to 
> see all the information in the laboratory,'' he said. ``We're trying to 
> further refine it to make sure that the right people doing the right 
> things have access to the right information.'' 
> 
I thought the Manhattan project was the first project to split the division
of work into so many pieces that only a few knew the complete picture of
what was actually going or trying to be the final outcome, until the very
end.

After John Walker in the Navy, the term "NEED TO KNOW" was strictly
enforced.  Also enforced was when you no longer required a security
clearance it was immediately revoked.  Maybe the DOE should just ask some
other agency's to help get them up to speed, take their lumps, and get on
with business.  

> Tucker said security breaches can also occur when scientists 
> pass along information to one another, especially through 
> electronic media such as e-mail. 
> 
> ``You have to get them to realize not to send information through 
> open communication,'' he said. ``They need someone to review it 
> and say, `This needs to be encrypted.''' 
> 
	How about, you send classified media over an unsecured line and your
fired, and as a bonus you get criminal charges filed against you.  Anyone
who has ever worked with atomic energy has read the little blurb "Classified
IAW the Atomic Energy Act of 1954......"  Why doesn't the DOE just enforce
it.  All it will take is one or two people going to jail, and I would be
relatively confident that everyone else will perk up and heed the warning
and take it just a little more seriously.  People might think this is a
drastic measure, but if you want to work with this material, you get to take
all the responsibility that comes with it.  Or is it the money game, if they
don't get the best scientist and the grant money that follows they will
start to wither, and this means bowing to the scientist every whim, don't
ruffle their feathers, let them bend a few rules, what will it hurt.

	Just my own ranting,

	Michael D. Kent RRPT 
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