Senator Jim Risch (R-Idaho) and several of his Republican colleagues are raising concerns over a “troubling report on the state of the counterintelligence enterprise” at the Department of Energy and of the subsequent reassignment of Director Steven Black, who led the Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence for eleven years. In a Nov. 21 statement, the lawmakers ask that Black not be assigned to any Office in the Department of Energy with a national security mission until their questions are answered.
“We write seeking answers to urgent questions raised by a recent personnel decision within the Department of Energy,” the Senators wrote. “On Tuesday, October 17, we received word that Steven Black, the long-serving Director of the Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence (DOE-IN) at the Department of Energy, was suddenly and without explanation reassigned. . . . We are also aware that a study conducted by an outside contractor, which the department has had in its possession since April, outlines disturbing findings as to the state of counterintelligence across the Department, to include the national laboratories.”
“If Director Black presided over DOE-IN over a period of time in which there were serious shortcomings with regard to counterintelligence, he should not be reassigned to any office within the department that has a national security mission,” the letter continues. “We request that you refrain from reassigning Director Black to any department office until we have received answers to these questions.”
Hackers hit the Idaho National Laboratory with a cyberattack on Sunday, stealing massive amounts of data on some of the 6,000 or so people who work at the site, according to the Idaho Statesman and other news outlets.
The data breach included employee addresses, Social Security numbers, bank account information and more information. Lab spokesperson Lori McNamara was quoted as saying the breach is being investigated and that federal law enforcement agencies are involved.
“Idaho National Laboratory determined that it was the target of a cybersecurity data breach, affecting the servers supporting its Oracle HCM system, which supports its Human Resources applications. INL has taken immediate action to protect employee data,” McNamara said. “INL has been in touch with federal law enforcement agencies, including the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security’s Cyber Security and Infrastructure Security Agency, to investigate the extent of data impacted in this incident.”
The Department of Energy recently shipped half a kilogram of heat source plutonium-238 from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee to Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico for use in future NASA space vehicles.
The shipment of a little over 1 pound of new heat source plutonium oxide is the largest since the domestic restart of plutonium-238 production over a decade ago, NASA said in a Nov. 21 statement. The agency said the shipment is a significant milestone toward a production average target of 1.5 kilograms per year by 2026.
NASA hopes radioisotope power systems will enable exploration of some of the most distant areas of the solar system and beyond. The power systems use the natural decay of plutonium-238 to provide heat to a spacecraft in the form of a Light Weight Radioisotope Heater Unit, or heat and electricity in the form of a system such as the Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator, NASA said.
A starving juvenile black bear took up residence in a culvert inside Los Alamos National Lab over the summer, prompting site officials and the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish to trap and relocate the beleaguered animal.
As the Santa Fe New Mexican reports, the bear began climbing onto cars and rifling through trash cans in search of food. The bear was humanely lured into a trap with bait and transferred to Cottonwood Rehab, a nearby wildlife rehabilitation center.
At just 20 pounds, the three-year-old bear was dangerously underweight but is expected to make a full recovery.
