Security upgrade project at LANL delayed

Staci Matlock | The New Mexican
Posted: Friday, October 26, 2012

A $213 million security upgrade project at Los Alamos National Laboratory has been indefinitely delayed due to cost overruns and other problems, according to a report in a nuclear weapons magazine.

The report in the Nuclear Weapons and Materials Monitor said the project’s construction, which began in 2008, was to update security on the lab’s nuclear weapons complex at Technical Area 55.

The projected cost then was $4,500 per inch on the 3,900 foot perimiter barrier.

According to the report in the monitor, shared by Greg Mello of the Los Alamos Study Group, the National Nuclear Security Administration and LANL management now say they don’t have a timeline for the project’s completion or a final cost estimate.

NNSA has requested emergency funding from Congress.

The Los Alamos Study Group a month ago reviewed a Google Map satellite view of the TA-55 security perimeter and told a congressional committee the project did not look complete. The security upgrade project is part of a lawsuit the group has pending against LANL in federal district court.