Los Alamos Nuclear Labs not tracking all weapons material
An inventory of all the material hasn’t
been done in “perhaps 13 years or more"
A stockpile of plutonium and other nuclear weapons
materials stored at Los Alamos National Laboratory hasn’t been fully
accounted for in 13 years or more, a government audit has
found.
An inventory of all the material hasn’t been done in “perhaps 13 years or more,” Friedman wrote. It wasn’t even done when the lab’s management contract changed last year, investigators noted in the report made public Wednesday.
“The capability to deter, detect and assist in the prevention of theft or diversion of this material is critical,” Friedman wrote. Yet, he added: “We were unable to find anyone with knowledge or documentation of the last time the vault was completely inventoried.”
Among the other problems auditors found: Some lab employees don’t follow instructions for how to develop identification numbers for the materials so they are easily identified. For example, auditors said one system was based on characters in a movie that a technician had just seen.
Does this mean that CP3O is more relevant than we all thought?
An inventory of all the material hasn’t been done in “perhaps 13 years or more,” Friedman wrote. It wasn’t even done when the lab’s management contract changed last year, investigators noted in the report made public Wednesday.
“The capability to deter, detect and assist in the prevention of theft or diversion of this material is critical,” Friedman wrote. Yet, he added: “We were unable to find anyone with knowledge or documentation of the last time the vault was completely inventoried.”
Among the other problems auditors found: Some lab employees don’t follow instructions for how to develop identification numbers for the materials so they are easily identified. For example, auditors said one system was based on characters in a movie that a technician had just seen.
Does this mean that CP3O is more relevant than we all thought?
Posted: Fri - September 14, 2007 at 06:43 AM