Atomic City Talk

Looks like Richard Lockley is in the hot seat for selling nuclear secrets to a "foreign power"...
Its always nice to see Oak Ridge in the news.

Wait... now the name is Roy Lynn Oakley. The AP started out with the first name. Sucks for Richard!
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7007952690

From what I understand, he did not work for ORNL but for Bechtel Jacobs, in East Tenn. Technology Park. This is on DOE land but is not ORNL.
More information here: http://www.oakridger.com/breakingnews.shtml

I would suspect he had Q. It sounds like as an escort for Bechtel he would be part of the USW union. That is who provides escort service for Bechtel Jacobs.

This stuff travels fast -- my brother-in-law in California called my mother-in-law in Michigan, who called me to see if we knew. We didn't (been outside most of the day).

The Sentinel's version indicates he was simply a laborer, though. The couriers are pretty thoroughly vetted, I think.

This happened at ETTP (formerly K-25); why is it being attached to ORNL? Is it simply because the western labs have done such a poor job with security that they drag in the words "national lab" just because it happens to coexist in the same city?

The scuttlebutt I hear is that he was an escort at ETTP -- an independent contractor with a Q clearance (from prior employment) who accompanies cleanup workers in areas where they cannot be without an escort.

As to why is it being attached to ORNL, that's easy: Almost 100% of the time that the national media get a story about a DOE facility in Oak Ridge, they report the location as "Oak Ridge National Laboratory." We locals may think that there are several distinct DOE facilities here, but the national media know better.

It's true that people unfamiliar with government business have a monolithic view of Oak Ridge. They ask me "do you work for Oak Ridge?" To them it's all Oak Ridge. And ORNL is the facility that is most identified with Oak Ridge nationally.

On a related topic, if it was barrier material that Mr. Oakley removed, he knew it was classified. I've worked at K-25 and it is made very clear to everyone that the stuff is highly classified.