http://home.eircom.net/content/reuters/worldnews/2528601?view=Eircomnet
U.S. nuke facilities fail security tests - report
From:Reuters
Friday, 13th February, 2004
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Security at two U.S. nuclear weapons facilities has been breached at least three times in mock terrorist drills despite heightened concerns after the September 11 attacks, says CBS news show "60 Minutes."
Security measures failed at the Y-12 nuclear complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee -- America's primary source of weapons-grade plutonium -- and at Los Alamos National Laboratory near Albuquerque, New Mexico, according to the report to be aired on Sunday.
The scheduled tests showed long-standing security problems had not been adequately addressed despite the new terrorism risk, according to the man who conducted other mock drills for the Department of Energy leading up to the September 11, 2001, assault.
"People should know that the Department of Energy facilities cannot withstand a full terrorist attack ... a realistic attack, serious, state-sponsored," said Richard Levernier, a former senior DOE nuclear security specialist.
A spokesman for the National Nuclear Security Administration said the news release for the segment was "misleading at best and irresponsible at worst."
"Our nuclear materials are secure and it's irresponsible to suggest otherwise," said spokesman Anson Franklin, adding: "These tests are designed to find vulnerabilities before someone else does ... it's wrong to suggest that terrorists could easily penetrate security at these sites."
Levernier said there was a 50 percent failure rate in the tests of factories and laboratories he conducted.
Chris Steele, the DOE's senior safety official at Los Alamos, said he was in the process of giving the laboratory an "F" grade because of "systematic nuclear safety violations."
The "60 Minutes" report cited other examples of lax security including the disappearance of hundreds of electronic key cards and master keys at nuclear facilities.
Lawrence Livermore Laboratory near San Francisco failed to immediately report its missing keys, while at Sandia National Laboratories near Albuquerque, locks to missing keys had just been replaced after three years, the report said.
"I find it inexplicable and unacceptable that people don't take (security concerns) seriously," NNSA chief Linton Brooks told "60 Minutes."
"And that's why we have been working to fix that problem."
Security at the facilities, however, was "perfectly acceptable," said Brooks. "Safe and no problem are not the same thing."
Copyright (2003) Reuters.
