Features:

DOE REVIEWS LIVERMORE LAB: SECURITY UNACCEPTABLE

A full review of security has been ordered by the Department of Energy for Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory after discovering security lapses that officials called "unacceptable."

Officials ordered the review of the laboratory in Northern California after learning that the loss of an electronic access badge had gone unreported to senior managers for six weeks. The badge could help gain access to 3,000 offices at the facility, some containing classified material.

A security officer lost the electronic badge on a routine shift in mid-April, and several days later, security officers discovered that a set of keys to the gates of the weapons laboratory was also missing. Laboratory officials changed the locks, and they said they had no indication that either the keys or the electronic badge had been used to gain entry. "I view this as a fundamental management failure at the laboratory," Michael Anastasio, the director of the laboratory, told reporters in a telephone conference Friday.

Linton Brooks, the national nuclear security administrator at the Energy Department, said the failure to report potentially serious security breaches "is unacceptable," a word echoed by other officials. Brooks ordered a team from Washington to visit the laboratory, which is run by the University of California, and to review security problems.

Both Livermore and the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, the nation's other major site for nuclear weapons research, have been beset by security problems in recent years. The Energy Department announced in April that it would seek competitive bids for the first time to secure Los Alamos, also run by the University of California.

These events follow several other recent security problems at Livermore. A security team member said in news reports that the laboratory's special response team was not adequately prepared to defend against a terrorist attack, and a security administrator left the laboratory in April after it was disclosed that while with the FBI, he had had a long-term affair with a Los Angeles woman now accused of being a double agent for the Chinese government. That incident was the subject of a separate, classified review.

The security officer who lost his electronic badge in mid-April filed a report at the time with an immediate supervisor, but senior managers were not notified of the incident until this past Thursday, Anastasio said. He said he was "still stunned" that senior managers were not told of the problem, adding: "I have no answer or explanation as to why that happened." Livermore officials said that after learning of the loss of the badge last week, they began immediately reprogramming electronic security to prevent access by anyone who might find the card.

One security manager has been suspended for five days, and more disciplinary action is expected, Anastasio said.