Los Alamos science on hold

Science at the US Los Alamos National Laboratory in northern New Mexico is taking a back seat to safety and US national security concerns as the entire campus has been shut down following the disappearance of two top-secret computer Zip disks. In addition to putting work on everything from gene sequencing to modeling climate to protein folding analysis on hold, the shutdown is likely to further delay the opening of a planned BSL-3 laboratory on campus.Laboratory director and retired US Navy vice admiral Pete Nanos decided on July 16 to shut down all operations—from classified weapons work to basic science research—when he said he realized an institution-wide failure to comply with procedures and regulations was the root cause for the disappearance of the disks and a July 14 laser accident that nearly blinded a 20-year-old intern.Even the laboratory's cafeterias and exercise facility are shut down. "There is some unclassified work that is now approved [to restart], but there is almost no classified work going on," laboratory spokesman Jim Danneskiold told The Scientist.The BSL-3 lab's opening has already been forced months off schedule by a pending lawsuit and the Department of Energy's (DOE) decision to redo its environmental analysis of the site plan. It will be delayed at least another month by the laboratory's shutdown, according to a DOE official in charge of the analysis. "When Los Alamos folks who work on the environmental analysis are back to work, I'll have a better idea of the delay [due to the shutdown]," said Elizabeth Withers, a DOE environmental analysis specialist.She said the analysis probably won't be complete until November—about 6 months late—and that the facility won't be ready to go online until early 2005, depending on the outcome of the lawsuit.The two missing Zip disks were created sometime around June 1 among a batch of 15 for a top-secret presentation at Los Alamos. They were found to be missing July 7 during a routine inventory of the laboratory's 40,000 so-called classified or controlled removable electronic media, such as CDs and floppy disks.Nineteen senior lab scientists and technicians have been placed on paid leave and stripped of their laboratory badges for the security and safety lapses, pending the outcome of their investigations. Fifteen, including an unnamed associate laboratory director, were suspended for their responsibility in the disappearance of the disks. Four were suspended for their role in the intern's accident. None are allowed at the laboratory except by security escort.Although a minority of employees think Nanos overreacted to the situation, most appear to be taking the laboratory's loss of credibility seriously. "It is scary up here," Manny Trujillo, president of the laboratory employees' union, said about the tense work environment just hours after Nanos scolded employees in a lab-wide address on July 22.Nanos, whose tough, swift actions have gained the approval of critical lawmakers and top DOE officials, has vowed that none of the laboratory's 12,000 employees in about 300 organizations and 25 divisions will return to their program work until he is convinced each one is totally committed to safety and security and that their restart won't create a liability for either the laboratory or the nation.Certain delays have provoked one corporation to pull the plug on a project at the laboratory, and Nanos said he expects other customers, including the military and other governmental organizations, to soon follow suit. Nanos predicts at least a 10% loss in revenue next year due to lost business.The University of California, which operates the Los Alamos laboratory, is in jeopardy of losing its contract to do so, which expires in September 2005. The university will have to compete for the contract for the first time in 60 years, and has not confirmed that it will. In addition, a bill introduced by Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., seeks to terminate the university's management early and block it from participating in the competition.Requests for interviews with scientists were denied. "Everybody is swamped," explained lab spokesman Kevin Roark. "Everybody is trying to get their startup requirements done."Roark said scientists are not supposed to be doing any work toward their groups' research projects until their organization gets the green light to restart from Nanos. "I think this will be a thing, where looking back, only then will we get an idea of the impact on science projects," he said.

Los Alamos science on hold

Disappearance of Zip disks forces shutdown that will delay projects including BSL-3 lab

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