This makes me think that maybe our government ought to
forget about keeping tabs on everyone's library book checkouts
and abortion records and start checking a little closer to home.
This sounds really scary to me.
US nuclear lab loses secret data
By David Willis
BBC Los Angeles correspondent
One of America's largest nuclear weapons research laboratories has suspended its activities after secret information data went missing.
Officials are not saying what data has gone missing from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, but clearly it is highly sensitive.
This is said to be the first time in living memory that Los Alamos has suspended part of its operations.
The laboratory was the birthplace of the first atomic bomb.
Two data storage devices were revealed to be missing last week from a department called the weapons physics directorate.
Officials are currently conducting a detailed inventory of sensitive data at the lab logging CDs and floppy discs.
That work is expected to take several days.
Staff who had access to the items in question are being allowed into the plant under escort only.
The National Nuclear Security Agency, the federal agency which oversees the industry, has sent a team to Los Alamos to investigate the disappearance.
Latest incident
The incident is the latest in a series of embarrassments that have prompted federal officials to put the Los Alamos management contract up for bidding.
Those include the disappearance of similar classified material two months ago.
Founded during World War II by a small group of scientists and military personnel who were seeking to develop atomic weapons, the Los Alamos laboratory now has more than 12,000 employees working on a site roughly 70km-square.
