Whistleblower’s Long War with Nuke Lab

Tommy and his part­ner, Chuck Montano, have been at war with Los Alamos’ man­age­ment for over a decade, ever since Tommy was named the lab’s “Whistleblower Officer,” and Montano one his inves­ti­ga­tors.
After Montano backed Hispanic and female lab employ­ees’ claims of dis­crim­i­na­tion at the birth­place of the atomic bomb, Los Alamos man­agers in 1996 “directed all of the inter­nal audi­tors to sign a ‘loy­alty pledge’ agree­ing to do noth­ing that was con­trary to the offi­cial posi­tion, ‘wel­fare,’ or ‘inter­ests’ of the Laboratory or the University,” accord­ing to a law­suit the pair recently filed against the lab.
But by 2003, Tommy seemed to be back in the lab’s good graces. Los Alamos’ old man­agers had been forced out, after they fired a pair of whistle­blow­ers. Glenn Walp and Steve Doran were ex-​​police chiefs who had uncov­ered a series of shady pur­chases and lax secu­rity at Los Alamos. Their dis­missal sparked national head­lines and Congressional inves­ti­ga­tions.
Tommy was appointed as the head of a new unit that was sup­posed to fol­low up on Walp and Doran’s find­ings. But when Tommy and Montano pre­sented their report, they were told to get lost. The new unit was “buried” in a bureau­cratic reor­ga­ni­za­tion. Tommy was told he needed to be more “‘flex­i­ble’ and allow man­agers the oppor­tu­nity to “change facts’” in his sub­se­quent find­ings, accord­ing to his law­suit. All work was taken away from him, for months. Now, it’s clear, that was only the begin­ning of his troubles.

June 6th, 2005 | Los Alamos and Labs | Comments Off Both comments and pings are currently closed.