Albuquerque Journal A federal study into 50 years of radioactive pollution at Los Alamos National Laboratory resumed last month almost a year after security fears at the lab forced out the team of government investigators conducting the project and nearly canceled the study altogether.
March 29, 2001
Pollution Study At Lab Resumes:
By Jennifer McKee, Journal Staff Writer
Security Fears Halted Fed Inquiry for MonthsThe extensive study, though, is still years from completion.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention started digging through old records at the lab two years ago in an attempt to map all radioactive releases both planned and accidental in the weapons lab's entire 59-year-history. The study is called a "document retrieval."
The agency hired California environmental research firm McClaren-Hart/Jones to do the study. At first, said Tom Widner, leader of the McClaren-Hart/Jones team, the investigators had wide access to the lab's extensive records and the project was proceeding as planned.
The Cerro Grande Fire last May temporarily closed the lab and halted the CDC study. But before investigators could get their hands on many more documents, a security scandal broke out over a pair of hard drives that disappeared from a top-secret part of the lab.
The tapes later resurfaced behind a copy machine, but the issue prompted stringent security clampdowns that kept the investigators out of all top-secret areas for months. Leaders of the project at the CDC repeatedly said they might have to cancel the study if the lab didn't open up its records soon.
That opening came in February, Widner said.
"It's a little bit more restricted than it had been," he said, but overall both Widner and the CDC said they are relieved the project has resumed and pleased with the lab's cooperation.
"We actually have been getting good cooperation now," said Paul Renard, the CDC's overseer of the Los Alamos lab study. "We feel very good about that."
The hang-up was increased security protocols at the Department of Energy in response to both the hard drive debacle and other security problems at Los Alamos. According to Renard, the lab would not let the CDC investigators back in to places where lab documents are stored with the same access they had before. The CDC and lab had to agree on exactly how the investigators would return to such sensitive areas and that process ate up time.
As it stands now, Renard said, investigators have access to most of the lab's documents, but they must be escorted by a lab worker at all times. Any document the contracted investigators cannot see must be viewed by a CDC staff member to make sure the document really does contain information unrelated to the pollution study.
"Public credibility will be jeopardized if we don't," Renard said.
The study will probably take several years to complete. With resumed access to documents, Renard said the team is only now discovering exactly how many records the lab has.
"Fasten your seat belts," he said. "We don't know how long this will take."
The agency's contract with McClaren-Hart/Jones will expire in December. Renard said it will be extended until the project is finished.
For now, he couldn't say exactly how long the project will take because the lab has not told investigators exactly how many records it has or where they are located. Renard said he expected LANL administrators to share that information with the agency as investigators continue the study.
As part of the study, many lab documents will be de-classified and copies made available to the public at two "reading rooms" one at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque and one to be established at Northern New Mexico Community College in Espanola, he said. Documents also will be available at the CDC's Web site.
The first shipment of such public-ready documents, some 14 boxes, already has been delivered to Albuquerque and are available on-line.
Steven Aftergood, head of the project on government secrecy for the Federation of American Scientists, said the lab was right to let the study resume.
"It's a positive sign the lab has recognized its obligations," Aftergood said. "It's good to know they are capable of changing their mind and behavior when circumstances warrant."
Lab spokesman James Rickman said LANL is committed to seeing the project through.
"There's pages and pages of documents," he said. "Everyone recognizes this is a substantial task."
Copyright 2001 The Albuquerque Journal