Studies conducted by federal officials inside and outside the Energy Department point to "sweeping" security problems at the DOE's nuclear weapons facilities, reports USA Today.
In the documents, DOE officials "openly" admit "for the first time ... that security may have been reduced too much" in response to budget cuts. The reports point to several "key flaws" at facilities such as the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant in Colorado, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California and the Mound plant in Ohio, including fewer security officers, an "older and less robust workforce," poor oversight of security operations and aging, overburdened buildings.
DOE officials say the problems revealed in the reports "represent breakdowns in individual layers" of security. But, in a written response to the audits, DOE officials said "the system is designed so that failure of one or more of these layers should not equate to adversary success" and that there are no problems that "constitute a pathway through these multiple layers."
The DOE says it is working to address the problems outlined in the reports, making plans to expand security forces and upgrade alarms and other protection systems. But facing shrinking budgets, increased security "will mean taking money from other DOE programs, such as environmental cleanup" (Peter Eisler, USA Today, 10/22).
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