In July the US Department of Energy fined current and past managers of Los Alamos National Laboratory $3.3 million for the latest in a long string of national security breaches. DOE officials said they fined the University of California, which managed the lab from 1943 until June 2006, $3 million. Los Alamos National Security, LLC, the consortium that took over management of the lab in June 2006, received a fine of $300 000. In addition to the University of California, the consortium includes Bechtel National Inc, BWX Technologies Inc, and Washington Group International Inc (see Physics Today February 2006, page 23).
The fines stem from a raid by Los Alamos police on a methamphetamine lab in a private home. During the raid, according to the police report, “officers realized that some of the items seized appeared to belong to the Los Alamos National Laboratory.” One of those items was...
