DOE chief backs reorganization

WASHINGTON -- In a surprising move, Department of Energy Secretary Bill Richardson endorsed a Senate proposal on Wednesday to create a "semi-autonomous agency" within the DOE to manage the nuclear weapons labratory system, including the Nevada Test Site.

Richardson has opposed the creation of a new Agency for Nuclear Stewardship (ANS) for weeks, but he said Wednesday that he would accept it so long as it was clear the ANS would remain under his control, according to the Washington Post.

Nevada Democratic Sens. Harry Reid and Richard Bryan could not be reached today for comment.

Richardson changed his position in an effort to reach a compromise with the Senate on the numerous security problems facing his department, which has been rocked with scandal since news surfaced of nuclear secrets being leaked to China.

Richardson has instituted security reforms in the year he has been at the department's helm, including the appointment of a retired general as a new "security czar."

"I think he's convinced himself that he doesn't want to lose all the advantages of" his security reforms at the department, a DOE official said today. "He doesn't want to step backward."

The department's staff is now negotiating with the Senate staff to craft an amendment to the Senate Intelligence Authorization bill that will create the ANS.

The DOE official said that while Richardson will support creation of the ANS, it must be separate from and accountable to the counterintelligence office created by presidential directive in February 1998, and to the secretary himself.

The restructuring was first proposed by three Republican senators last month and was written in response to a widespread demand for greater security at the DOE after a report by a bipartisan committee headed by Rep. Christopher Cox, R-Calif. The committee released a scathing report that documented cases of stolen nuclear weapons secrets at the department's laboratories.

Another report, produced by a presidential panel led by former Sen. Warren Rudman of New Hampshire and titled "Science at its Best and Security at its Worst," was released in June. It endorsed the idea of a semi-autonomous agency to manage the weapons research and nuclear stockpile management programs.

The Rudman report said the DOE has been plagued with security problems since its inception more than 20 years ago and said it found a department "saturated with cynicism, an arrogant disregard for authority, and a staggering pattern of denial."

The Rudman panel praised Richardson for his reforms but said the department's problems ran too deep to be fixed by anything short of a massive reorganization.

Richardson said in the past that he opposed creating "a fiefdom within a fiefdom," and did not favor the Rudman report's other proposed solution, which was to separate the nuclear research complex entirely from the department, turning it into an independent administration similar to NASA.

Richardson's new support makes it more likely the ANS measure will pass the Senate. The measure must still pass the House Intelligence reauthorization bill, and then survive a House and Senate conference.

Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., who sits on the House Intelligence committee, called Richardson's announcement an indication Richardson "has decided to take seriously his role to revamp the counterintelligence, security and intelligence functions if his department."

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