Energy Secretary Bill Richardson said that an "egregious" security breach had occurred at the Los Alamos Laboratory in which classified nuclear weapons computer codes were transferred to an unclassified computer system, Reuters' Tabassum Zakaria reports.
"While I cannot comment on the specifics, I can confirm that classified nuclear weapons computer codes at Los Alamos were transferred to an unclassified computer system," Richardson said in a statement.
The story led Thursday editions of The Washington Post, and writers Vernon Loeb and Walter Pincus add that the new revelations lengthen the stretch of time that the security breaches may have taken place through the Reagan, Bush and Clinton administrations.
China denied any role in the incident, Reuters reports. "The problem of China stealing nuclear technology from the United States does not exist. If there has been a leak of secrets on the part of the United States, that is their own affair," Foreign Ministry spokesman Sun Yuxi told a news conference.