Mock Terror Attack Defeats Livermore Lab Security

CBS5
Posted: 2008-05-14 18:19:46

LIVERMORE (AP) ― Mock terrorists defeated security personnel in a recent drill at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where nuclear weapons research is conducted, federal officials said Tuesday.

A critical piece of the lab's defense failed during the test when a truck-mounted Gatling gun, capable of firing more than 50 rounds a second, got stuck before it could be deployed. The cause was a faulty hydraulic mechanism that has since been corrected, according to a federal energy official familiar with the security assessment.

The mock assault, and the "disappointing" results of a sweeping security assessment, spurred immediate changes at the lab, including an expanded security staff and a daily security training regimen, said Susan Houghton, the lab's chief spokeswoman.

Previously, some training was only conducted quarterly.

Other federal officials acknowledged the shortcomings discovered in the assessment in March and April, while also pointing out that the mock assault was far from realistic.

The assault team started at the fence line of Livermore's "Superblock" facility, where nuclear weapons research is conducted, and where plutonium has historically been stored.

Before the exercise began, the attackers hauled all-terrain vehicles, torches and explosives inside the fence, and carefully walked the interior of the buildings they would later "storm," said the Department of Energy official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the assessment.

The attackers, drawn from other federal facilities, "battled" with Livermore security personnel using sophisticated simulated weapons akin to those used in laser tag, the official said. Some security forces defending the lab "survived," but not all. Overall, the facility was rated effective in four key areas, but needing improvement in four others, the official said.

The findings of the exercise underscored "a number of areas that require immediate attention," said Bill Ostendorff, principal deputy of the National Nuclear Security Administration.

The "force on force" exercise was part of a broader assessment that examined cybersecurity, including e-mail vulnerabilities, and "physical and operational" security, Houghton said.

All of the officials interviewed declined to say what the objective of the mock attack was.

In the Superblock, research on plutonium and highly enriched uranium—critical ingredients for nuclear weapons—is conducted.

Rep. Ellen Tauscher, whose district includes most of Lawrence Livermore, said the exercise highlights the need to remove the plutonium from the lab, which is on the outskirts of the densely populated San Francisco Bay Area. Tauscher said she had successfully asked for $10 million to accelerate the removal.

"Failing an exercise like a mock terrorist attack highlights serious and unacceptable security shortcomings at Lawrence Livermore Lab," Tauscher said. "I have insisted that the plutonium housed at Livermore be consolidated and moved away from Livermore to a safe location away from population centers as soon as possible to eliminate the possibility of these situations occurring."