Fire danger: Moderate
NMT director responds to report on DOE Type-A investigation
The Department of Energy has released a report on its investigation into an incident March 16 that resulted in eight workers being exposed to plutonium-238 while working at the Lab's Plutonium Facility.
Tim George, director of the Nuclear Materials Technology (NMT) Division, responded to the report by saying:
"We remain deeply concerned about the March 16 incident and its potential impact on the health, safety and welfare of the workers involved. We will do whatever is necessary in the weeks and months ahead to ensure that the individuals involved receive the appropriate support and treatment they need to succeed in the workplace and in their personal lives.
"As a result of the incident," George said, "the Laboratory has identified and is correcting potentially serious problems that most likely would not have been identified otherwise. Among these was a widespread issue with thousands of loose plumbing fittings known as 'Swageloks' at the plutonium facility and the Laboratory's Chemistry and Metallurgy Research facility. Had this problem not been identified and corrected, dozens of similar potentially serious contamination incidents could have occurred. Programmatic work will not resume at these facilities until problems have been corrected and workers can resume operations in a safe manner.
"It is important to note that the problem at the facility had nothing to do with the Swageloks themselves, but rather with the way that they had been installed. We will continue to use the plumbing fittings at our facilities, and we will ensure that each and every one has been installed and maintained according to manufacture -- recommended specifications."
George said his division has taken the following actions since the March 16 incident occurred:
"We are continuously improving our operations at TA-55 to ensure that the facility remains a safe environment in which to work," George said. "In addition, we want to ensure that all members of our work force are well-trained and safety conscious, and able to carry out the Lab's mission in the safest most responsible manner possible. Anything less simply won't do."
--James Rickman
Laboratory director reports to UC Regents
In a report to the University of California Regents last week, Laboratory Director John Browne noted improvements to security at Los Alamos and Livermore national labs, but said more needs to be done to protect classified information.
Browne also sought to clarify misunderstandings and misperceptions resulting from the much-publicized disappearance from a Los Alamos vault earlier this year of two hard drives containing classified nuclear weapons information.
"There's an impression left that people at the labs don't care about security," he said. "That's just not true. Our employees are dedicated public servants. They believe in the labs' mission."
The creation of and access to classified information is also commonly misunderstood, according to Browne. "The people at the labs who have the information aren't given the information, they create the information. A vast majority of them follow procedures."
The vault from which the hard drives disappeared was protected by multiple layers of security, such as a badge for access to a limited area and biometric reading, he said. "We're not talking about people just wandering in.
"There aren't any excuses for these hard drives to disappear," he said, adding the incident still is under investigation to determine if the hard drives were lost, misplaced or deliberately taken.
Browne worried that such an incident could compromise the Nuclear Emergency Search Teams whose members "risk their lives when they go out into the field."
Since the hard drive incident, additional security requirements have been put in place, he said. People are now required to log in for access, and items contained in the vault have been bar coded.
He noted that Department of Energy rules governing secret and top secret data were relaxed after the end of the Cold War, and that there's no longer "strict accountability" for those information categories, he said.
"Congress was surprised when we told them that secret and top secret data are no longer accountable," Browne said, adding that the directors of Los Alamos, Sandia and Livermore have expressed concerns about that lack of accountability.
While the UC contract with DOE to manage the labs specifies that the university is responsible for security, Browne said responsibility has to be shared with DOE because "they set the rules."
DOE conducts audits and determines if security standards are being met in physical, information and cyber security, he said.
After the latest DOE security reviews, both Los Alamos and Livermore security were rated satisfactory, the highest rating given by the department.
Browne said new DOE security requirements for cyber security have not been accompanied with additional resources. "We have to do it," he said. "We have to do it by balancing our priorities."
The labs also implement measures that go beyond requirements at their own expense, he said. "You're in a catch-22 situation. You can continue to do it, but you don't get the resources to do it."
While there are shared responsibilities, Browne emphasized that the people who create classified information must ultimately be held responsible for the security of that information.
"Regardless of what security system we use, the people who create the information have to be responsible and accountable," he said.
Security has to be integrated into lab operations the way safety has been through Integrated Safety Management, Browne said. "This should not be a compliance-based issue. People have to get into their minds that security is a part of the way they work."
During the question and comment period following the security update, Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante told Browne "you're responsible for security, the university is responsible. If the university is going to take on the management of these two facilities, we cannot continue to have the kinds of breaches that have taken place.
"We always have to guard against that. We owe that not just to the management contract, because it's not just a management contract we have here," Bustamante said. "We owe it to the security of this nation, and I don't think that can be understated in any way.
"I take this very very seriously and I know you do as well," he said. "This university has to be able to be up on top, on guard all the time.
"We have to have a system where we are as difficult on ourselves as other people are because the stakes are just too high," Bustamante concluded.
--Don Johnston, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Editors note: The following information was provided to the Daily Newsbulletin by the Community Relations Office (CRO)
County rehabilitation work to continue this weekend; volunteers also needed at Los Alamos Food Bank
Work continues Saturday on land rehabilitation and volunteers are needed for the American Springs area to rake, seed and mulch, said Al Toth of the Los Alamos Police Department and coordinator for Los Alamos County's volunteer program. After this weekend, the trend will be toward smaller projects where fewer volunteers will be needed, he said.
The volunteer program currently is in transition, said Toth, as the leadership is changing and the types of projects needing volunteers is expected to differ from those in the past. "We've pretty much run out of things that we can put hundreds of people on. Now we're looking at smaller projects. We are thinking of having people adopt an area and doing things like clean up and keeping track of how the forest is regenerating," he said. Rehabilitation of trails also is moving into the forefront as the flood mitigation efforts are being completed.
Because a number of organizations have expressed interest in helping, such as the Los Alamos Pathways Association and the Nordic ski trail group, some volunteer projects will be organized around their memberships. But opportunities for those not affiliated with particular groups also will be arranged, he said.
"During earlier stages of the rehab work we had people here from all over the country to help us organize the volunteer efforts, said Toth. "With the fire out people have had to go back to their regular assignments and we have to figure out how to get the work done using the same resources we'll have here for the next couple of years, the people in this community."
As a result of this self sufficiency the county will need more people to serve as crew leaders, a role other organizations have played in the past, Toth said. "We'll need to train crew leaders in both the classroom and the field to take the responsibility for small groups of volunteers and equipment," he said. "We need people who will be able to help over the long haul and, needless to say, the more crew leaders we have the less often we'll call on them. We want to make sure we don't burn anybody out."
Those interested in helping with the rehabilitation efforts this Saturday should plan on arriving at the Mesa Public Library parking lot between 8 and 9 a.m. and work until around 1 p.m. Sturdy shoes, pants and long-sleeved shirts are required. Sunscreen is suggested and water will be provided, but volunteers might want to bring something to carry the water. Additional help with registration also would be appreciated and anyone who wants to help with registration should plan on being at the library a little before 8 a.m.
The Los Alamos Food bank needs volunteers from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. today to help unload trailers, get materials ready for distribution and the re-storing materials at the end of the day.
As a result of Laboratory feedback, the food bank will be changing the days it needs help in August to Fridays and Saturdays. Some assistance continues to be needed on Tuesdays. Employees able to volunteer should contact the food bank at 662-9622 and leave a message letting them know what time(s) they can volunteer.
Employees interested in volunteering for either effort can contact Linda Anderman of CRO at 5-9196, or anderman@lanl.gov or volunteer@lanl.gov by e-mail.
Emergency Rehabilitation
Team update
Protect Laboratory facilities and infrastructure
Los Alamos and Pueblo Canyons
Pajarito, Two-Mile and Water Canyons
Work not specific to canyons
Minimize movement of contamination off Laboratory property
Maintenance of sediment traps in Mortandad Canyon
Ongoing projects
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Commuter's Corner | Parking areas around TA-3 | Parking shuttle routes (pdf) or jpeg |
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