Energy Dept. acts against Los Alamos lab ( $3,000,000 proposed civil penalty )

UPI ^ | July 13 ,2007 | UPI staff

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

WASHINGTON, July 13 (UPI) -- The U.S. Department of Energy has started an enforcement action against Los Alamos National Laboratory.

The department and its National Nuclear Security Administration announced Friday they had started a "formal enforcement actions ... against the University of California and the Los Alamos National Security, LLC, the prior and current management and operating contractors of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico."

The action was being taken "for violations of classified information security requirements under their respective contracts," the NNSA said in a statement.

"Investigations revealed that management deficiencies of both contractors were a central contributing factor in a Laboratory subcontractor employee's unauthorized reproduction of and removal of classified matter from the site," the NNSA said.

"In response to this serious security breach, the NNSA today issued a Preliminary Notice of Violation to the University of California with a $3,000,000 proposed civil penalty (the largest the department has ever assessed) and a Preliminary Notice of Violation to LANS with a $300,000 proposed civil penalty," the statement said.

Also, U.S. Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman Friday "issued a Compliance Order to LANS which requires the contractor to take specific corrective actions on a prescribed timetable in the physical protection and cyber security of classified information at the Laboratory," the statement said.

"Violation of a Compliance Order is itself a violation of departmental regulations, which may result in the imposition of civil penalties up to $100,000 per day for each violation," it said.

The Los Alamos National Laboratory is one of the U.S. government's three nuclear weapons laboratories, and it is tasked with sensitive national security missions,

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

including maintaining the security of the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile.

The Energy Department and NNSA have been concerned about .....

security

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

fyi

[Eagles6]

gotta save this for tomorrow.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Earlier thread:

LANL Could Lose Classified Projects (Los Alamos Lab)

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

From the Los Alamitos paper:

UC fined
UC ticketed $3 million for security violations

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UC ticketed $3 million for security violations

ROGER SNODGRASS Monitor Assistant Editor

The nation's nuclear weapons agency today proposed a $3 million fine against the University of California for its responsibility in a security violation uncovered during a drug investigation in Los Alamos in October 2007.

An additional notice and penalty of $300,000 was imposed on Los Alamos National Security (LANS), LLC, the current management and operating contractor of Los Alamos National Laboratory.

LANS faces further penalties under a separate compliance order that prescribes corrective actions and a timetable for protecting and securing classified information at carrying a penalty as much as $100,000 per day for each violation.

The actions taken by the National Nuclear Security Administration, which supervises the nuclear weapons complex, were steps in a formal procedure for imposing the fines.

"Investigations revealed that management deficiencies of both contractors were a central contributing factor in a laboratory subcontractor employee's unauthorized reproduction of and removal of classified material from the site," the Department of Energy stated in a press release today.

A spokesperson for NNSA said UC would have 30 days to reply to the notice.

The civil penalty against the University of California of $3,000,000 was proposed despite the former manager's assertion of immunity from enforcement under the Eleventh Amendment of the Constitution.

In the notice, UC argued in favor of mitigation of the penalties based on the fact that it was a subcontractor that committed the penalties, not UC, and that UC was not the LANL management contractor at the time the material was taken out of the security perimeter. UC also asserted 11 other factors that were to be considered wholly or partially exculpatory.

"These assertions are misdirected and unavailing," the notice stated. "As an initial matter, UC is responsible for its structural management deficiencies ..."

DOE's notice said the material that had been unlawfully removed from the laboratory and found in a mobile home not far from the laboratory consisted of a total of 433 items of classified matter:

• 23 documents (142 pages) were Secret/Restricted Data;
  
  
• 296 documents (802 pages) were Secret/National Security Information with No Foreign Dissemination caveat;
  
  
• 66 documents (199 pages) were Secret/National Security Information without caveat; and
  
  
• four documents (11 pages) were Confidential/National Security Information.
  
  In electronic files found on the portable thumb drives at the same time, there were three additional Secret/Restricted Data files and one additional Secret/National Security Information file.
  
  In a statement issued today, UC said, "The University is confident that the actions that have been and continue to be taken at the lab, in partnership with LANS and DOE, to address security concerns are strong and aggressive, and these issues continue to have our highest attention."

[The Spirit Of Allegiance]

Is it time for ATOMIC Minutemen too?

These civic penalties are funds-transfers among bureaucracies and don’t exact justice on the actual perpetrators.

[Marine_Uncle]

"These civic penalties are funds-transfers among bureaucracies and don’t exact justice on the actual perpetrators."
Exactly my thoughts as I read the article.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

From the Los Alamitos paper:

Whoops...that should have been the Los Alamos paper....

[upsdriver]

What good does a monetary penalty achieve? If our security has been breached, shouldn’t that result in criminal charges and jail time or firings in the very least?

Aren’t these places funded by taxpayer money in the first place or am I misunderstanding this whole thing?

[Tunehead54]

They don't say but weren't these docs found in a drug addict's (meth?) place? Funny - wonder what they were fined for losing those hard drives with all our nuclear info on a small nuke - the w88?

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[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Not sure,...I’m late to this story...