livermore, california

Department of Energy secretary Bill Richardson began a morale-boosting tour of national laboratories last week to reassure Asian-American scientists that the recent Chinese spy scandal has not placed them under a broad cloud of suspicion (see above).

In the first such event, Richardson made a speech and took questions at a private meeting last Friday (11 June) with a largely Asian-American audience at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where he was dedicating the laser target chamber of the National Ignition Facility (see page 622).

Richardson is planning to make similar addresses next week to Asian Americans at the Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico.

The Los Alamos meeting may be particularly tense given the international scrutiny of the spy scandal there, in which federal authorities suspect a Taiwanese-born scientist gave some of America's most sensitive nuclear secrets to the Chinese. No criminal charges have been filed against the scientist, Wen Ho Lee, who was fired in March for security violations.

During the public dedication ceremony for the National Ignition Facility, Richardson told an audience of more than 500 scientists, laboratory employees and their families that the laser project couldn't be accomplished without the assistance of Asian-American scientists.

After the ceremony, Richardson spoke to nearly 400 Asian-American scientists and Livermore Laboratory personnel at a private meeting which officials had attempted to keep secret. Acting under instructions from the Department of Energy in Washington DC, Livermore officials gave false information about the secretary's schedule that day to prevent reporters from knowing of the private discussion.

According to Dorothy S. Ng, however, a civil engineer and structural analyst at Livermore who attended the meeting, representatives of long-established Asian-American groups at the laboratory presented Richardson with considerable information reflecting their concerns. After the meeting, Ng, who was born in China but is a naturalized US citizen, said she was encouraged by the treatment she and other Asian Americans had received.

“We had a nice dialogue,” said Ng, who has worked at the laboratory for 21 years. “We as a group have received a commitment from Richardson and Livermore management to try to correct the negative image. I am impressed that Livermore Laboratory management and the secretary are concerned about us.” Congressmen who talk about the loyalty of Asian Americans at national laboratories, Ng said, should be “responsible in their comments and speak of proof and truth”.

Livermore officials said that no scientist has quit their laboratory in the wake of the spy scandal. But Richardson is reported to have told the private meeting that one distinguished Asian-American researcher was said to have left the Los Alamos laboratory because of perceived hostility.