San Diego

The Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico is facing new embarrassment over its security procedures this week, after admitting that it has lost computer hard drives containing classified information about the design of nuclear weapons.

The drives were found to be missing when the laboratory was being cleared of important equipment as brush fires approached last month (see Nature 405, 264; 2000). “This is an extremely serious matter and we are taking swift actions to deal with it,” laboratory director John Browne said on Monday.

The laboratory is run by the University of California on behalf of the Department of Energy. Browne said that a joint investigation is being carried out by the department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He has promised “appropriate disciplinary actions” if individuals are found to be responsible.

The missing data are believed to include information about how to defuse nuclear devices in case of emergencies, as well as data on Russian weapons. A statement from the laboratory said that efforts were continuing to locate the missing media “or to determine if they were inadvertently destroyed”.