Who has the keys?

[BEER980]

AFP) -- A dozen keys that enable scientists to enter off-limits buildings at a top-secret US nuclear weapons laboratory have been lost presenting a potential security breach, a government inspector revealed.

The critical report, dated Tuesday, by the Department of Energy's Inspector General Gregory Friedman found a total of twelve keys are missing from the department's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.

Livermore officials had initially estimated it would cost the taxpayer 1.7 million dollars to replace and upgrade 100,000 locks in 526 buildings at the site, but government officials have yet to validate these costs.

"The loss of the master keys and the Tesa card, and the delay in reporting these losses, raised the possibility of security vulnerabilities at the laboratory," Friedman's report warns.

Officials at the top-secret nuclear research facility reported one set of master keys missing on May 5th, although the keys were discovered missing on April 17.

Due to the national security nature of the laboratory's work, officials are meant to report a loss of such keys within twenty-four hours, and master keys are only carried by a small number of personnel at the site.

Friedman's probe also discovered that security officers had known about some of the missing keys, but had not reported their loss to the department.

The loss for some of the keys only came to light when a locksmith employee at the site reported that security officers had tried to get a duplicate set of keys made to replace lost keys.

"We concluded that Livermore did not have adequate internal controls to ensure that security incidents involving missing master keys and Tesa cards were reported within required timeframes," the report found.

Tesa cards are plastic card-like keys with a magnetic strip that are also used at the site.

The nuclear weapons laboratory is managed for the energy department by the University of California.

[cycloneye]

Hummm this information coincides with the one about the cargo planes threat.

[stormchazer]

The Chinese have them!!...ot Bill Clinton.

[vbhoutex]

Don't take this reply wrong, but I find it very disturbing that this is going on. I do not look at it as a matter to joke about, not in these times. I do not know how much the public knows about LL Labs, but it is a huge research facility. My Uncle, now retired, worked there all his life. He was a physicist. He was doing SDI research before people even knew SDI existed. IE they do some of the most top secret and advanced research of "future" weaponery there that is done. He couldn't even tell his wife what he was working on. I could care less how much it costs to "rekey" the place-it needs to be done immediately. And heads should roll for the security breach that has happened. In my book IT IS UNEXCUSEABLE!!!! If the wrong people got those keys and successfully accessed some areas of the facililty, literally millions could be put at risk, if not the whole world.

[Colin]

Uh-Oh...that's kind of scary! :o

[Rainband]

Uh-Oh...that's kind of scary! :o

VERY scary

[GalvestonDuck]

I heard about this on the news today. However, they said the keys only allow limited access. The person who tries to use the key won't get as far as he hopes.

I hope.

[Lake Effect1]

Just one more thing to add to the list.scaryyyyy.

[BEER980]

I would question that news report GalvestonDuck . I just did the math on 100,000 locks in 526 buildings. That works out to 190 locks per building. Maybe vbhoutex could give us a better idea of the building sizes. That sounds like a lot of doors to me.

[azsnowman]

There's only ONE person who has the keys to the future!

Ya know.....there is SOOOOOOOO much that our government doesn't tell us. Has anyone seen the program on the History Channel about all the "Broken Arrows?"

Dennis

[ColdFront77]

190 locks per building with 60 left over.