Posted on 09/13/2007 7:57:46 AM PDT by kellynla
WASHINGTON (AP) — 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.
The northern New Mexico lab's workers have done regular, partial inventories of the material, which the government considers to be at high risk of theft, the audit by the Energy Department's inspector general, Gregory Friedman, found.
Yet 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.
Friedman said he is concerned because the lack of complete inventories means that lab workers likely haven't physically accounted for all of the material in more than a decade.
"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."
(Excerpt) Read more at ap.google.com ...
Doesn’t Los Alamos have a major security incident every 6 months or so? It seems like they have no security procedures in place at all, and no oversight to speak of.
Uh, Mr. Roark, it is precisely because you <Kinison> HAVE A MUCH LARGER SUPPLY </Kinison> that you need to inventory it. I am sorry if that is expensive and difficult but contrary to what you learned in publik skool, you have to do those things too.
After all the security lapses with the Chinese and now this lack of accountability.....WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?
NM Ping!
who was in charge at the time - clinton, richardson?
well ya know where NM got their governor from...
yep, the Los Alamos Loser himself, Richardson...
and he wants to be POTUS? LMAO
how he got elected governor is a mystery to me...
he couldn’t even manage a Dairy Queen much less a state!
Plutonium based paint for toys means you won’t trip over them in the dark anymore.
Strange, my lab uses tiny amounts of nuclear material and we have to provide an inventory and be inspected monthly. And the stuff we work with is pretty benign.
“who was in charge at the time - clinton, richardson?”
obviously neither...LMAO
Hmmm... Since early in the Clinton years.
to cover a theft perhaps, 13 years ago
That’s an interesting, though chilling, thought. Given the WH occupants of the time, however, not a surprising one. I do NOT! want to return any Clinton anywhere near our WH.
Another use for plutonium is to paint over your incandescent bulbs. They will never burn out or need batteries again!
Los Alamos has had a security problem from the beginning. Klaus Fuchs, a German with a British political asylum pass, and Theodore Hall, a 19 year old recruited from Harvard, gave the Soviets all the work being done on the Manhattan Project. It saved the Soviet Union years of wasted effort, and the first Soviet atomic bomb was exploded in 1949, thanks to the Los Alamos traitors.
S”trange, my lab uses tiny amounts of nuclear material and we have to provide an inventory and be inspected monthly.
And the stuff we work with is pretty benign.”
yea...well maybe your boss should apply for the job at Los Al since there hasn’t been anyone doing it for over a decade!
then richardson:
"The Senate confirmed Richardson to be Clinton's Secretary of Energy on July 31, 1998. His tenure at the Department of Energy was marred by the Wen Ho Lee nuclear espionage scandal. Richardson was also criticized by the Senate for his handling of the espionage inquiry by not testifying in front of Congress sooner. Richardson justified his response by saying that he was waiting to uncover more information before speaking to Congress.[7]" - -wikipedia
During her term as Secretary of Energy, she was often accused of travelling too frequently and spending lavishly on her accommodations. She apologized to Congressional committees in 1996 for spending which exceeded limits on the funds appropriated for travel and resigned in January 1997. Some also made the accusation that these trips, which according to a GAO report sometimes paid expenses for businessmen, were used to pay back Democratic Party contributors. It was later revealed that Chinagate scandal figure Johnny Chung claimed that O'Leary met with Chinese oil officials after Chung had donated $25,000 to O'Leary's favorite charity Africare. Janet Reno refused to authorize an investigation of this charge, however. It was later revealed that FBI director Louis Freeh had advised Reno that the circumstances surrounding the donations were "extraordinarily suspicious".
Thank you. It’s coming back and it’s even worse than I remembered. I’ve said from the beginning that I thought Hillary would select Richardson to be her running mate. He knows where all the bodies are buried and seems to be fine with his knowledge, as far as I can tell.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.