Los Alamos halts classified work

LOS ALAMOS, N.M., July 16 (UPI) -- New Mexico's Los Alamos National Laboratory, long plagued by security lapses, says it will halt classified research during an inventory of sensitive data.

Earlier this month a crucial storage device needed to run an experiment in the lab's weapons physics division disappeared, the New York Times reported Friday.

Because most of the lab's work is classified, the decision affects nearly all of the work being done at the remote facility in northern New Mexico.

"The investigation to date indicates widespread disregard of security procedures by laboratory employees," Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said.

"This is absolutely unacceptable. While our first priority must be to locate the missing material, the government will insist that the University of California, which operates Los Alamos, ensures that the laboratory take strong measures to correct the systematic flaws that allowed this problem to occur."

The inventory will take at least several days, said Kevin Roark, a laboratory spokesman.

Employees involved in classified research will also repeat training on laboratory procedures and policies on handling sensitive data on floppy disks, CD-ROM's, memory cards and other removable data storage devices.

The loss of the storage device is the latest in a series of actual or alleged security lapses at the facility.