Sandia Labs “will fully cooperate” with GAO recommendations on classified nuclear supercomputing upgrade

On December 9, 2010, U.S. Representatives Henry A. Waxman, Edward J. Markey, and Bart Stupak released a report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) identifying serious weaknesses in the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) plans for recovering and reconstituting the classified supercomputing system in the event of a disaster or other service disruptions.

According to their joint press release:

“NNSA’s classified supercomputing systems are critical to our nation’s modern nuclear weapon development and testing program,” said Rep. Waxman, Chairman of the Committee on Energy and Commerce. “It is a matter of national security that NNSA be prepared to maintain the continuous operations of these supercomputers in the event of a disruption. I urge the agency to address the GAO’s recommendations and to implement effective and comprehensive contingency and disaster recovery plans at all three of its nuclear laboratories.”

Etopia News contacted the three national laboratories involved in nuclear research (Lawrence Livermore, Sandia, and Los Alamos) for comment on the report’s recommendation. On December 17th, Sandia National Laboratories provided this statement:

“Sandia National Laboratories will fully cooperate with the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) on the recommendations in the Government Accountability Office report on information security. Because the report is addressed to the NNSA, we are referring further questions to them for their consideration.”