Project on Government Oversight documented repeated security and accountability failures at Los Alamos National Laboratory, the U.S. nuclear weapons facility. In 2009, 69 computers disappeared from the laboratory, although officials said the machines did not contain the highest-level classified information. POGO also reported that employees had been warned to be cautious about what they told safety and security inspectors, raising concerns about institutional transparency and oversight.
The same year, officials reported that 2.2 pounds of plutonium were missing and launched a Department of Energy investigation. Investigators concluded that the material had not actually disappeared; the discrepancy resulted from a miscalculation by laboratory statisticians. The episode nevertheless produced heavy DOE criticism of Los Alamos’s security weaknesses, including poor control of equipment and records containing sensitive information. The source does not identify a criminal prosecution or a named executive responsible, but the incidents underscored the consequences of weak inventory systems at a national-security laboratory.
