Coverage of the July 16^th UT Board of Regents Meeting

- Austin American Statesman, (07/16/04)
- Houston Chronicle, (07/17/04)
- San Antonio Express-News, (07/17/04)
- Fort Worth Star Telegram, (07/17/04)
- Associated Press, (07/17/04)
- Daily Texan, (07/19/04)

the following is adapted from issueonline.org.

Los Alamos in the News

By Austin Van Zant
September 2004. Issue. Vol. 1. No. 6. Page 14.
http://www.issueonline.org/files/issue6.pdf

The University of Texas System plans to participate in the first-ever competitive bid for the management of Los Alamos National Laboratory. Los Alamos designs the active nuclear components of the nation’s nuclear weapons. UT first made its intentions to bid known in May 2003, in the days that followed the Department of Energy’s decision to open the bidding process on April 30, 2003. In their meeting on February 4^th, 2004, the UT System Board of Regents allocated $500,000 to “look” into a bid for Los Alamos, which may cost UT $6 million by the time it comes to bid. From www.utwatch.org.

June 28, 2004

It took Los Alamos guards 16 hours to realize that the keys were missing to Technical Area 18, a site that contains highly enriched uranium and plutonium. They keys were later found in a security vehicle.

July 7, 2004

Two zip disks containing highly classified information were reported missing at Los Alamos. The loss was described by their spokesman as "very serious." Lab Director George Nanos shut down operations in the classified division, which represents 40-50% of total lab operations. Currently, it has been suggested that the disks were never missing and the losses should be attributed to an accounting error.

July 9, 2004

Greenwire reported that abnormal levels of plutonium are leaking into the Rio Grande River, which borders the lab. The origin of the waste dates back to the 1950's and 60's, when the "kick and roll" method was practiced. "They would just put barrels of waste on the edge of the canyon and kick them and watch them roll," said Joni Arends of Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety in the article. Although the method is no longer practiced, its contaminating effects linger in the Rio Grande and other waterways.

Just weeks after this story was reported, CCNS announced the results of a commissioned study regarding Los Alamos waste. They found that "low concentrations of explosives and perchlorate suspected to be from the lab have reached the Rio Grande."

July 14, 2004

A 20-year-old intern was hit in the eye by a laser she was using in an experiment. Four employees were suspended with pay in connection to the accident.

As a result of this safety breach, Lab Director George Nanos closed the entire lab, except for key military operations.

July 17-18, 2004

The Project on Government Oversight, a watchdog group, reported that 17 e-mails containing classified information were sent over an unsecured internet server at the lab.

July 22, 2004

In a letter to the Los Alamos community, U.S. Senator Peter Domenici, R-N.M., stated that he is "the proudest defender" of Los Alamos, but that "in Washington [D.C.], Los Alamos' reputation as a crown jewel of science is being eclipsed by a reputation as being both dysfunctional and untouchable."

August 5, 2004

The San Francisco Chronicle reported that it "would take another two months to completely restart classified and other research at the Los Alamos National Laboratory after most operations were shut down." That means Los Alamos won't be fully online again until early October.

This shutdown came at enormous cost to taxpayers. Los Alamos' yearly budget total is around $2.2 billion; a conservative estimate would put classified work at about 50% or $1.1 billion. Therefore, for each day that Los Alamos is offline it costs a little over $3 million in lost productivity.