NNSA Asks DOE IG to Investigate Case of Fired LANL Nonprolif. Expert
NS&D Monitor
9/19/2014
National Nuclear Security Administration chief Frank Klotz is asking the Department of Energy’s Inspector General to look into whether a Los Alamos National Laboratory nonproliferation expert was fired based on an the publication of a pro-nuclear abolition article. DOE has rejected Jim Doyle’s whistleblower claims and his appeal for a secretarial review of his case was dismissed Sept. 15, but in a separate Sept. 15 letter to DOE IG Gregory Friedman, Klotz asked the IG to weigh in on the issue. “As I believe you are aware, there are conflicting accounts of the circumstances leading to Mr. Doyle’s termination,” Klotz wrote. “Factual clarity here would assist the Department in handling this matter and, if necessary, potentially addressing any general issues this matter may raise.”
Los Alamos has said Doyle’s July 8 firing came as part of a series of layoffs, but he has said he believed it was linked to a 2013 article that was published in the international journal Survival: Global Politics and Strategy. After the article was initially cleared by the lab for publication, Doyle said he was told the article contained classified information. “The Department of Energy fully subscribes to the principle and importance of academic freedom at our national laboratories, and will not tolerate retaliation against nor dismissal of employees or contractors based on the opinions they express in scholarly publications and presentations,” Klotz wrote in his letter to Friedman.
