Watchdog: Dept. in charge of nuclear weapons safety hasn’t fully implemented program to address ‘insider threats’

The Energy Department, which is in charge of the country’s nuclear weapons safety in addition to energy used as fuel, has not fully implemented a program aimed at addressing “insider threats,” according to a government watchdog. 

The Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan congressional watchdog, said the department hasn’t implemented seven out of 26 minimum requirements to address these threats. 

“The theft of nuclear material and the compromise of information could have devastating consequences,” the report said. 

Insider threats refer to those that could come from employees or other visitors. 

The report specifically said the Energy Department divided responsibilities between two offices that need better integration in order to prevent “significant challenges that preclude it from having an effective or fully operational program.”

It also said that the department has not “identified and assessed” the resources it needs to fully implement the program.

In an official response, Todd Lapointe, the director of the department’s Office of Environment, Health, Safety and Security (EHSS), said that the administration “maintains programs that are specifically designed to avoid or minimize insider threats.”

The department concurred with the watchdog’s recommendations, including that it should create a process to better integrate responsibilities, adopt a single, department-wide approach and identify the resources it needs. 

“The Department has a highly vetted workforce and maintains programs specifically designed to avoid or minimize insider threats while capitalizing on longstanding protection measures against misuse of critical stockpile assets and resources,” a department spokesperson told The Hill in an email. “We appreciate the GAO’s review and have taken a series of actions to further bolster the Department’s capabilities to effectively deter, detect, and mitigate insider threats throughout the nuclear enterprise.