FORCE-ON-FORCE EXERCISE LOOMING AT Y-12?

The Project on Government Oversight reported last night that a force-on-force test is looming at Y-12. The watchdog group said that the Department of Energy’s Office of Independent Oversight would perform a review of Y-12 security “before the end of this month” that would include the force-on-force test. POGO also said that DOE was planning further tests at other sites that house nuclear materials with Category I/II security, including Savannah River, Los Alamos, Lawrence Livermore, Pantex, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Idaho National Laboratory. But POGO also said that the force-on-force tests might not be enough, suggesting that Department of Defense teams be brought in to test DOE security forces. “These security tests are needed, but DOE and DoD must ensure that they present genuine conditions and that security forces aren’t practicing based on a scripted plan,” POGO Senior Investigator Peter Stockton said in a post on POGO’s website. “If an 82-year-old nun was able to breach Y-12 and wander around, we need to reconsider our approach to protecting the nuclear arsenal.”