U.S. Nuke Labs' Security Facing Review

["Gerry Blackwood" <gpblackwood@justice.com>]

U.S. Nuke Labs' Security Facing Review    

Sat Jan 3, 9:04 AM ET   



By JOHN HEILPRIN, Associated Press Writer 



WASHINGTON - Worries about missing keys and other

security lapses at some of the nation's top-secret

nuclear weapons labs have prompted the federal agency

that maintains the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile to

review locks, keys and procedures at facilities

nationwide. 



The Energy Department's semiautonomous National Nuclear

Security Administration, which oversees nuclear weapons

programs within the department, is sending a team of

inspectors to launch the security review in February.

The action follows NNSA initiatives last summer, after

some in Congress complained about specific security

breaches at several facilities. 





"We have completed a complexwide inventory of locks and

keys. The idea now is not to go over (again) every lock

and key, but to sit down and review with folks the

controls that were put in place last summer," Bryan

Wilkes, an agency spokesman, said Friday. "We want to

make sure security violations, whether they're large or

small, don't happen again." 





In July, the NNSA announced new plans to reinforce

safeguards with added security experts, more frequent

surveillance, a review of past studies and

investigations and creation of a commission and

separate panel for more long-range planning. 





The NNSA is responsible for maintaining the U.S.

nuclear weapons stockpile, for promoting international

nuclear nonproliferation and for providing nuclear

propulsion systems for the Navy's submarines and

aircraft carriers. 





Wilkes said the most recent case of missing keys

involves NNSA's plant for processing weapons-grade

uranium in Oak Ridge, Tenn. Last summer, he said, the

facility reported missing "a little under 250" keys,

but that "none of them were for any sensitive areas." 





He said most "were to janitorial areas or to file

cabinets; simple things that people lose keys to every

day." 





"A small portion of that — under 40 — went to people's

offices or to a conference room where you can have

classified information for up to an hour," Wilkes said.

"It was limited to two buildings, and those buildings

were completely re-keyed." 





A set of master keys went missing for several days at

Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, N.M., and

an electronic key card was gone for six weeks before

top managers were informed at the Lawrence Livermore

National Laboratory in Livermore, Calif. A set of keys

to perimeter gates and office doors also was lost at

Livermore and went unreported for three weeks. 





Sandia is expecting a review. Chris Miller, a spokesman

for Sandia, said Friday the lab was advised a couple of

weeks ago "that DOE probably was going to be visiting

early in the new year just to look at security again.

There are always ongoing looks at security." 





The inventory also is being conducted at other NNSA

offices, plants and nuclear research labs in Missouri,

Nevada, New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and

Texas. 





___ 





Associated Press reporters Sue Major Holmes in

Albuquerque, N.M., and Duncan Mansfield in Knoxville,

Tenn., contributed to this report. 





___ 





On the Net: 





National Nuclear Security Administration:

http://www.nnsa.doe.gov 



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