LANL Oversight Board

University of California President Richard Atkinson has appointed physicists Sidney Drell, an emeritus professor at SLAC, and Robert Dynes, the UC San Diego chancellor, to an oversight board to “help guide Los Alamos National Laboratory Interim Director George ‘Pete’ Nanos.” Nanos took over the top job at LANL in January after the lab became immersed in fraud and theft allegations and director John Browne resigned (see Physics Today, February 2003, page 22 ).

Drell was the first chairman of the President’s Council on the National Laboratories in 1991 and was on the panel that reviewed LANL’s handling of the Wen Ho Lee case. Dynes also has extensive experience with the National Labs, having served for two decades as a consultant and adviser to the labs.

LANL is being investigated by the FBI, two congressional committees, and the US Department of Energy for allegations of widespread abuse of procurement card purchases and employee theft of lab property. DOE officials are also reviewing UC’s oversight of LANL and the school’s management of Lawrence Berkeley and Lawrence Livermore national laboratories.

Drell said he considers science and engineering programs at LANL, including the stockpile stewardship program, to be part of the review. “I have concerns that the science and weapons programs live up to the expectations of the nation and that is why I agreed to be on the panel,” he said. “I’m not on the panel to fix fiscal issues.” Drell said he wouldn’t discuss his specific concerns until he had reviewed the lab’s programs. He did say he had “great confidence” both in Nanos as the interim director and in Bruce Darling, UC’s senior vice president and interim vice president for laboratory management. The three other members of the oversight board are UC regents with financial expertise.