January 28, 2003 

Operations at Los Alamos National Laboratory

On November 18, 2002, the Office of Inspector General began a fact finding inquiry into allegations that senior management of the Los Alamos National Laboratory engaged in a deliberate cover-up of security breaches and illegal activities, in particular, with respect to reported instances of property loss and theft. The Acting Administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration requested this inquiry based, in part, on media reports that Los Alamos employees had misused the Government purchase order system to buy millions of dollars worth of goods for personal use and that Los Alamos management had attempted to hide these events from the Department of Energy and the public.