Laboratory Director G. Peter Nanos has suspended all work activities at Los Alamos to "ensure this Laboratory operates safely and meets all our national security obligations." The move to suspend all activities at the Lab - effective last Friday - was made by Nanos with the concurrence of the Senior Executive Team.
The director has asked for a point-to-point risk assessment of all Laboratory day-to-day activities. Managers will be providing employees with information they need to comply with the work suspension as well as what needs to occur before work can be restarted.
"We will be reviewing every organization's activities as well as their performance. I am insisting that every group leader talk to each of his or her employees, work with them to analyze the safety, security and environmental risks, and recommend restart to his or her division only when convinced all the local compliance issues have been addressed," Nanos said in the all-employee memo. "Division leaders, in turn, will follow the same process with their associate directors. In no case will I authorize a restart until I'm absolutely convinced that each organization will not risk further compromise of safety, security and environment. I've asked all Laboratory managers to talk with their employees one-on-one to make sure they understand their roles in ensuring a safe work environment and vigilant focus on security. This is not an e-mail exercise; I want eye-to-eye contact."
The move to suspend all work at the Laboratory comes on the heels of Nanos' decision last Wednesday to suspend classified work. In the memo, Nanos reiterated some of the points he made at all-employee meeting last week regarding the seriousness of the situation and the need for all Laboratory workers to comply with all security and safety regulations.
Nanos also noted that Department of Energy Deputy Secretary Kyle McSlarrow is scheduled to be at the Laboratory today. DOE Secretary Spencer Abraham has asked McSlarrow to take over the department's investigation into missing Classified Removable Electronic Media, or CREM, and that McSlarrow will use "all available mechanisms" to find the missing CREM, including polygraphs. McSlarrow will see first-hand the vaults and other locations that are the focus of the CREM investigation, and hear from some of the managers involved in an attempt to understand exactly what happened, Nanos said in the all-employee memo.
To read the all-employee memo, click here. (Adobe Acrobat Reader required)