washington

The US Department of Energy and congressional allies of its troubled nuclear weapons laboratories are this week seeking to hammer out a compromise for their future administration. They are keen to deflect growing pressure for drastic change, following the release of a scathing report on security at the laboratories.

The report, Science at its Best, Security at its Worst, was issued last week by the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (PFIAB), chaired by a former Republican senator, Warren Rudman. The report “struck quite a nerve” in the administration, according to one official there, by the intensity of its criticism of the energy department's management of the laboratories.

Even more troubling for the administration was the board's recommendation that the labs should be split off from the main structure of the department and placed in a semi-autonomous agency within the department.

Lab supporters had earlier blocked a drive by Republicans to move all nuclear weapons research into the defence department and end visits to the labs by foreign scientists.

But the Rudman report has revived pressure for administrative reforms. Senator Pete Domenici (Republican, New Mexico), a leading supporter of the labs, has come out in favour of Rudman's proposal for an Agency for Nuclear Stewardship within the energy department. It would be similar in concept to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Agency within the Department of Commerce.

At first, Bill Richardson, the energy secretary, called the plan unworkable. “The security problems at the department are broader than the board recognizes,” he said. A new agency would “erode the link between national security and science at its best”.

But by last weekend Richardson was said to be backing down and a compromise with Domenici was in the works. One option was to create an undersecretary for weapons and security in the energy department. But such a move could be construed as adding another layer of the administrative complexity which Rudman roundly criticized. The issue was due to be addressed this week at joint hearings of four congressional committees.

Meanwhile, developments unfolded in the investigation of security violations at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico. The Albuquerque Journal reported that the inquiry was extending considerably beyond Wen Ho Lee, the scientist whose alleged security violations triggered the lab scandal. On Monday (21 June), Richardson said that polygraph testing was to begin this week on up to 5,000 weapons lab staff.