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New security initiatives announced by NNSA

A new five-part initiative designed to reinforce current safeguards and security oversight and strengthen long-term security operations in the nuclear weapons complex was unveiled this week by the National Nuclear Security Administration.

Linton Brooks, NNSA administrator, asked managers to take the following actions:

• Assign additional federal and contractor security experts to expedite NNSA's response to security management concerns that the agency has identified at the laboratories in recent months;
• Require NNSA site managers to increase the frequency of surveillance of security at the weapons laboratories; surveillance is a security management tool that measures performance of security operations. Site managers are expected to provide biweekly reports directly to the administrator personally on the results of the enhanced surveillance; and
• Review recommendations from numerous past internal and external studies and investigations to ensure that all appropriate recommendations have been implemented.

Brooks also has created two review groups to assess longer-range issues affecting security management and protection. Retired Admiral Richard Miles will lead one panel examining physical security and nuclear materials control and accountability programs, focusing primarily on NNSA's weapons laboratories.

Retired Admiral Hank Chiles will lead a group charged with developing recommendations for recruiting and retaining NNSA managers who have the technical, engineering and physical sciences expertise needed for effective, long-term oversight of safeguards and security operations in the nuclear weapons complex.

To read a NNSA news release, click here.

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