Page One

While questions have been raised about the University of California’s ability to maintain a secure environment at the Los Alamos, N.M. and Livermore national laboratory facilities, the issue does not arise at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, a lab spokesperson said Wednesday. 

“We’re not a weapons lab,” said Lynn Yarris, speaking for LBNL. “We’re not involved in these security issues.” 

The University of California manages three contracts for the U.S. Department of Energy – one at Los Alamos, one at Livermore and a third in Berkeley. “Each contract is separate,” Yarris said. 

Matt Nerzig, spokesperson for the Department of Energy confirmed that the DOE is not interested in restructuring the management of the Berkeley laboratory. 

“Nothing’s being contemplated,” he said, underscoring that the Berkeley lab does not work on weapons contracts. “The main difference between the Livermore and Los Alamos labs (and the Berkeley lab) has to do with weapons.” 

The question of lab security came to the foreground with the arrest of Los Alamos scientist Wen Ho Lee, accused last year of transferring secret data files out of secured computers. Also at the Los Alamos facility, two hard drives with nuclear weapons information turned up missing this spring. The hard drives were recently found. 

The Department of Energy announced last week that it would be looking at restructuring or revoking the university’s contract for overseeing the Los Alamos and Livermore laboratories’ contracts. 

“The Energy Department will immediately begin negotiations with the University to bring into their operations specific security and management expertise to implement these improvements,” says a June 30 statement released by the DOE. 

“The University of California’s performance in managing security at our weapons laboratories is unacceptable and must be immediately addressed,” Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson said. “Safeguarding security at our nation’s weapons laboratories warrants nothing less.” 

University of California President Richard Atkinson responded by saying the university “welcomes the opportunity to work with DOE in this effort and to create a path forward that meets all security needs.”