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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: gao seng who wrote (222425)	1/28/2002 4:29:17 AM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Nuclear Arms Plants' Security Lax, Report Says. Mock 'Commandos' Were Able to Beat Safeguards at U.S. Facilities About Half of the Time, Despite Advance Notice of the Tests Being Given: washingtonpost.com Terrorist commandos could gain access to weapons-grade nuclear material and rapidly construct and detonate nuclear weapons because of grossly inadequate security at many of the nation's nuclear weapons research facilities, a Democratic member of the House has warned in a letter to the Energy Department. The letter from Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) is based on internal Energy Department documents and a 2001 study by a watchdog group that shows that federal agents posing as "commandos" in mock exercises were able to breach security at nuclear laboratories more than half the time. For example, in a test at the Rocky Flats nuclear production facility in Denver, Navy SEALs successfully "stole" enough material to make several nuclear weapons. And in a test at the Los Alamos facility near Santa Fe, the "terrorists" had enough time to construct an improvised nuclear device. In most cases, officials at the facilities were notified well in advance of the mock attacks and yet security forces were unable to thwart many of the assaults. Critics of security precautions say terrorists also could use the nuclear material to fashion "dirty bombs," conventional explosives used to spread radioactive contamination over a wide area. "Experts have told me that a group of suicidal terrorists could, once inside the facility, quickly build and detonate a dirty bomb or a homemade nuclear bomb capable of achieving explosive critical yield," Markey, a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said yesterday. "DOE has been ignoring expert critical reports on security of its facilities for decades, and as a result we are all at risk." Markey's criticisms were based on a study last year by the Project on Government Oversight (POGO), a watchdog group that unearthed government documents highlighting security problems at 10 major nuclear weapons complexes. He also cited research by his own staff. Dozens of government studies have pointed to similar problems. ...Markey's 23-page letter, which he is scheduled to release today at a news conference, cites numerous security problems in the storage and transportation of weapons-grade plutonium and uranium at four of the 10 major nuclear facilities: Lawrence Livermore, in California's San Francisco Bay Area; Los Alamos in New Mexico; Rocky Flats; and Oak Ridge, near Knoxville, Tenn. Markey and Sen. Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.), among others, are pressing for legislation to require federal guards at all nuclear weapons labs and nuclear power plants. ...Mark Graf, a security official at Rocky Flats who temporarily lost his job after complaining about conditions, said yesterday that "DOE has failed to address these issues and retaliated against people who have raised them. "My greatest concern is of the improvised nuclear device," he said. "Imagine, if you will, a small nuclear explosion surrounded by tons of nuclear material and waste."