Classified Computer Disk Copies Missing from Energy Department Office in New Mexico

An inventory conducted at a U.S. Energy Department regional office in Albuquerque, N.M., has found an “accounting discrepancy” involving three copies of an electronic media device containing nuclear weapons information, the Energy Department said yesterday (see GSN, Aug. 19).

The inventory found that three copies of one controlled removable electronic media device were unaccounted for, said National Nuclear Security Administration spokesman Bryan Wilkes. All classified work involving the media devices has been halted pending findings of an investigation, NNSA chief Linton Brooks said.

“I am disappointed that we have found another case of lax procedures in protecting classified information,” Brooks said in a statement.

The inventory was ordered last month following the reported disappearance of two classified computer disks at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. Those disks have yet to be accounted for (Associated Press/USA Today, Aug. 19).

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