"A U.S. nuclear weapons laboratory must replace up to 100,000 locks at a cost of more than $1.6 million, after staff lost several sets of master keys to the complex, then failed to notify superiors," the Associated Press reports.
The extraordinary series of security blunders at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is outlined in a scathing report by the U.S. Energy Department's inspector general.
According to the report, officials at the laboratory have lost nine master keys and three magnetic key cards to the top-secret research facility. In some cases, officials still do not know when or how the keys went missing.
In at least one instance, a loss only came to light after a locksmith blew the whistle on security officers who tried to have duplicate master keys made to replace a set they had lost. Such master keys are only entrusted to a handful of staff.
Awful stuff. But what's truly creepy is that, in March, an almost identical incident went down at the government's Sandia weapons lab.
