LANL broken security system to cost $41 million

The cost of fixing a new Los Alamos National Laboratory security system that doesn’t work could be twice as much as estimated just two weeks ago, with the price jumping to $41 million.  

Problems with the $213 million project designed to improve security for the building where lab workers sometimes make plutonium nuclear weapon parts have “damaged the laboratory’s credibility,” the lab’s director said in a memo to staff this week.

  The system was nearly completed when lab officials discovered earlier this year that it did not work.  Two weeks ago, Los Alamos officials estimated the cost of fixing the problems at $21 million to $25 million, according to an internal National Nuclear Security Administration report obtained by the Journal.  But in his memo to Los Alamos staff Wednesday, lab director Charles McMillan said the lab now estimates the cost at $41 million.

 Needed work could take six months and is not likely to begin until March. In the meantime, additional guards will be needed to protect the building while the security system is inoperable. 

LANL broken security system to cost $41 million