Features:

LANL SUSPENDS 19 WORKERS OVER SECURITY, SAFETY CONCERNS

Los Alamos National Laboratory has forced 19 employees to take paid leave as officials examine recent security and safety problems, including the disappearance of classified materials. In addition, Congress has expressed concern over the University of California's inability to properly manage the lab for the Department of Energy.

On July 7, two computer disks were found missing from the lab. Fifteen workers were suspended in all for the breach, and 11 had direct access to the safe containing the important disks. A similar incident occurred in May, when classified materials slated for destruction turned up missing.

Security has not been LANL's only problem. Safety issues have begun to plague the lab as well. Four other employees were suspended because of a laser accident with a 20-year-old student intern.

The nineteen suspended workers may appear at work for investigational purposes, but are otherwise banned from the lab until circumstances are more clearly examined.

Though names and positions were not released, lab reps say the suspended workers come from various levels of management and employment.

The suspensions come a week after the University of California halted all classified work at the lab while officials began a wall-to-wall inventory of sensitive data. Inventory CDs, floppy disks and other data storage devices were investigated to locate security lapses.

The disks, though classified, are thought to be on lab property; nothing yet indicates espionage efforts.

These recent developments threaten the lab's future. Congress is proposing to cut the lab's funding, partly due to the workers' handling of the developments. Officials say that some workers are in denial about the gravity of the lab's problems. And, despite efforts to reduce inventory of removable storage devices, restructure custodial policies and increase security for sensitive material, officials said some employees are simply not abiding by the rules.

Federal officials have put the management contract up for bid for the first time in the lab's 61-year history. New proposed legislation would prohibit the university from competing to renew its contract, which expires in 2005. The university is undecided on whether or not it will compete for the management contract when it expires next year, although staffers have been told to prepare as though they will.