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Nature 395, 627 (15 October 1998) | doi:10.1038/27031

Congress warns nuclear labs of spy risk

Colin Macilwain

The three nuclear weapons laboratories of the US Department of Energy are tightening controls on access by foreign scientists in the wake of growing concern in Congress that the lack of thorough vetting of visitors is enabling foreign intelligence services to spy on them.The directors of the Los Alamos, Sandia and Lawrence Livermore laboratories told a congressional hearing on 6 October that steps were already being taken to vet visitors more carefully, following a 1997 report from the General Accounting Office (GAO) that attributed security breaches to inadequate vetting.