March 17, 2014

HOUSE LAWMAKERS: MORE ACCOUNTABILITY FOR Y-12 SECURITY BREACH NEEDED

By ExchangeMonitor

House lawmakers finally got their chance to press Department of Energy officials about the July 28 security breach at the Y-12 National Security Complex yesterday, with several strongly asserting that the response to the incident has been inadequate. With lawmakers at a House Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee hearing calling the breach “appalling” and “mind-boggling” and Roman Catholic nun Meghan Rice, one of the three peace activists that reached Y-12’s inner sanctum in the audience, the most pointed criticism came from a pair of Republicans. Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas) suggested that federal officials haven’t taken appropriate responsibility for the breach, likening the incident to the inadvertent cross-country flight of nuclear warheads aboard an Air Force bomber in 2008 that led former Defense Secretary Robert Gates to remove the secretary and chief of staff of the Air Force. Top contractor officials at Y-12 have been removed, and NNSA nuclear security chief Doug Fremont has been temporarily reassigned while the agency reviews the incident, but no other headquarters officials have been impacted by the incident thus far. “Who in the agency has taken responsibility?” Burgess asked to a witness panel that included Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Poneman and NNSA Administrator Tom D’Agostino. “Secretary Gates asked for the resignation of the secretary of the Air Force. Where is the accountability in this situation, which I would submit is no less serious than what occurred in Minot, N.D.”

Rep. Marcia Blackburn (R-Tenn.) was angered by reports that classified reviews had identified security problems at Y-12 that were not addressed, such as inoperable cameras and as many as 200 false alarms a day that appeared to desensitize the site’s guard force as the protesters cut through fences on their way to the Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility. “It just seems incomprehensible that you could’ve said we have this report, we’re doing this review, we have these problems, the problems are not fixed … to completion. How could you continue the contract if they are not completed,” Blackburn said, adding: “This is classic bureaucratic pass the buck.” Poneman noted that the agency has made repairing security at Y-12 and across the weapons complex its highest priority. “We had specific shortcomings that were not adequately identified or addressed or if they were fixed the system was not fixed to the point that it was sustained,” Poneman said. “These are the things we’re trying to get our arms around right now.” When he said that the issues that led to the July security breach had been fixed, Blackburn interjected. “You fixed them after you were embarrassed and you fixed them two years too late,” she said.

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