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Most of the US nuclear weapons research industry will grind to a halt Monday in an unprecedented move prompted by a burgeoning scandal at Los Alamos National Laboratory, the birthplace of America's nuclear bomb shaken by a spate of security breaches. The suspension, ordered Friday by Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, comes amid a broadening investigation at Los Alamos, New Mexico, where two classified computer zip drives were reported missing July 7 and have not been accounted for since. Abraham has called the situation "unacceptable" and ordered the halt of all secret weapons work involving removable hard drives or computer disks at all facilities that come under the jurisdiction of the Department of Energy. Jeanne Lopatto, spokeswoman for the department, explained the suspension, which takes effect Monday, will affect about two dozen institutions, including the department's leading research laboratories. She declined to elaborate, but when asked how much work the seemingly technical order will affect, she acknowledged, "Yes, the majority of the work." Under Abraham's directive, all nuclear weapons researchers will begin the week by taking stock of their computer files. They will not be able to return to normal work until each and everyone of these storage devices are accounted for. "They have to begin an inventory, and they have to fulfill the protocols set out by the secretary's order and certify that they have the new accounting procedures in process and certify that back to the Department of Energy," Lopatto said. After the inventory is completed, scientists will no longer be allowed to keep the disks at their desks but rather at special heavily guarded repositories. "These procedures are designed to guarantee a complete inventory of our classified electronic holdings and make certain that specific individuals can be held responsible and accountable for future problems," said Abraham in a terse statement. He assured the suspension was being ordered as a precaution, and there was no evidence that the breaches similar to those at Los Alamos had been detected elsewhere. But energy officials could not say how long the standdown would last. Although played out largely behind closed doors, the security investigation at Los Alamos is now beginning to take a dramatic turn. As many as 19 laboratory employees, including 15 scientists who had access to the missing disks, have been placed on administrative leave, and Director Peter Nanos hinted Thursday heads would soon roll. "If I have to restart the laboratory with 10 people, I will," he said. Industry watchers warned, however, that both laboratory management and their bosses in Washington were not, publicly owning up to the full scope of the problem. According to the Project on Government Oversight, a group that monitors the nuclear weapons complex, Los Alamos employees sent classified information over an unclassified email system 17 times over a recent two month period. In June, the laboratory lost two keys to Technical Area 18, a site that contains highly enriched uranium and plutonium, while about a year ago, lab officials lost two vials of plutonium, the group said. On Wednesday, the project called for the resignation of Linton Brooks, head of the National Nuclear Security Administration. with the group's executive director, Danielle Brian, charging the administration "wants to protect the status quo at all costs." Los Alamos gave birth to the world's first nuclear bomb in 1945 as part of the supersecret Manhattan Project aimed at establishing America's leadership in nuclear weapons technology. The laboratory is now said to be involved in monitoring the national nuclear weapons stockpile as well as in research on new "bunker-busting" bombs. All rights reserved. Copyright 2003 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse. Quick Links
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