Rep. Michael Turner (R-Ohio), the chairman of the House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee, left a visit to the Y-12 National Security Complex Monday with the feeling that security at the site was as “good as it’s ever been” since a July 28 security breach but unconvinced that enough is being done to protect Y-12 and the rest of the weapons complex. “I’m still very skeptical of whether or not we’re sufficiently addressing our security needs at the NNSA facilities,” Turner said in a teleconference with reporters yesterday, adding that he was still looking to NNSA to take action to correct “failings on such multiple levels.” Turner, who toured Y-12 Monday with NNSA Administrator Tom D’Agostino, Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.), representatives from B&W Y-12, and Congressional staff, tracing the steps that three elderly protesters took to penetrate the most secure areas of the site, acknowledged that investigations into the incident were still ongoing, and he said despite suggestions by NNSA officials to the contrary, he did not believe that senior officials at NNSA were unaware of security vulnerabilities at the site, which included inoperable security cameras, high false alarm rates, and insufficient reaction from security guards. “I’m not comfortable with the statement that they didn’t know. It’s not credible,” he said.
He said that he confronted leaders on the issue Monday: “I expressed to them on-site that it is unfathomable and not credible that the systems would have had such repeated failures and have such great vulnerability and no one knew.” However, Turner stopped short of pushing for more action from the agency in the wake of the incident, seeming content to allow the agency to complete its investigation. “I’m confident at this point that they’re pursuing the issue vigorously of holding senior management responsible and we will see unfolding greater actions, I believe, as they’re investigation concludes,” Turner said. “They indicated there were investigations that were ongoing that would have the net result of holding people accountable. I’m comfortable that those investigations are proceeding vigorously.”
