SANTA FE, N.M., Feb. 12 (UPI) -- The Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico should have reacted stronger to the 2008 disappearance of 80 computer-related items, the government says.
The National Nuclear Security Administration's site office in Los Alamos, N.M., said in a recent memo that LANL managers should have taken the disappearance of the items more seriously given the potential data the items may have contained, the Albuquerque Journal said Thursday.
"The magnitude of exposure and risk to the laboratory is at best unclear as little data on these losses has been collected or pursued given their treatment as property management issues," the federal department said.
Lab spokesman Kevin Roark has maintained the missing computer items did not contain any classified information and the items only represented a fraction of the lab's more than 40,000 computer-related items.
Roark also said only 13 of the items were actually stolen as the other 67 items have since been located or recovered by lab officials, the Journal reported.
