June 15, 2000

The Honorable Bill Richardson
Secretary
U.S. Department of Energy
1000 Independence Avenue, S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20585

Dear Secretary Richardson:

We, along with many others in the Congress, have been astounded by the latest loss of nuclear weapons information at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. We all recognize the seriousness of this loss and the need to determine what happened. Regardless of whether the missing hard drives containing nuclear weapons design information were misplaced, destroyed, stolen, or lost, we do know that something is seriously wrong with security at Los Alamos. Moreover, a large group of people at the laboratory committed another serious security breach by deliberately violating both the lab’s and the Department’s security protocols. They not only failed to report the missing material to their own line management, security staff, and the Department within eight hours of determining the loss, as required, but, after returning to the lab after the fire, these persons spent nine more days attempting to find the hard drives before they informed the security staff at the lab or the Department.

It is clear to us that the University of California, whose contract to run Los Alamos gives it the full responsibility to maintain security at the lab, is incapable of carrying out its contractual obligations. Despite all of your strong actions, the workplace culture has not changed. In fact, it appears that only the efforts to hide the laboratory’s lapses have been heightened. Because of the University of California’s total inability to carry out its security obligations under its contract, we request that you terminate the Department’s contract with the university as soon as possible. There is no more time for excuses and finger-pointing.

Security begins and ends with the people who work with the classified material.   Security must permeate the daily consciousness of these people as much as safety must permeate the daily consciousness of those who work with nuclear material. Virtually every loss of weapons information at Los Alamos has involved lab employees, and much of the recent coverup incident was committed by lab employees. As you recognized when you ordered last year’s stand-down, if the attitude and behavior of these people cannot be changed, security will not be improved.

Clause 10.3 of the university’s contract, which has been unmodified since 1994, states as follows:

(a) Responsibility. It is the Contractor’s duty to safeguard all classified information, special nuclear material, and other DOE property. The Contractor shall, in accordance with DOE regulations and requirements, be responsible for safeguarding all classified documents and material . . . and protect against sabotage, espionage, loss and theft the classified documents and material . . . .

(b) Regulations. The Contractor agrees to conform to all security regulations of DOE and all applicable DOE directives.