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Thief steals radioactive items from Los Alamos National Lab

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Thief steals radioactive items from Los Alamos National Lab - KQRE, Oct 13th

LOS ALAMOS, N.M. (KRQE) – Not a very smart thief, stealing lab tools contaminated with radiation from Los Alamos National Laboratory. Investigators believe a LANL contractor might have done just that, and put the public at risk in what is just the latest problem with theft at the high security lab. Los Alamos Police are calling the man a “person of interest,” but not a suspect.

Richard Atencio, an employee of Compra Industries, had total access to LANL’s Technical Area-54, which is a radioactive waste storage area.

The incident started as a theft, but quickly turned into a full-on HAZMAT situation last month.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Compra Industries was the same company that hired Jessica Quintana, famous for the classified USB thumb drive that she had in her Los Alamos trailer back in 2006.

Who owns Compra Industries? They don't seem to have a web site and little public information seems to be available about exactly who they are and who owns them. They seem to have a record of hiring people with clearances who end up embarrassing LANL.
10/26/2015 8:14 PM
Anonymous said…
Seems Mr. Atencio was having a kinda bad day.

Maybe he was casting, by method acting, for an upcoming Fargo episode
10/27/2015 7:19 PM
Anonymous said…
New Mexico has a few backward denizens. Perhaps Quintana has diversity objectives to achieve.
10/27/2015 7:22 PM
Anonymous said…
"It's the same old day-in and day-out safety and security issues at Los Alamos", Dr. Victor "Vic" Reis, former Assistant Secretary for Defense Programs, DP-1, Department of Energy, 1997
10/27/2015 9:44 PM
Anonymous said…
How does a company with a record like that of Compra Industries continue to get lucrative LANL sub-contracts year after year?
10/28/2015 3:23 PM
Anonymous said…
"It's the same old day-in and day-out safety and security issues at Los Alamos", Dr. Victor "Vic" Reis, former Assistant Secretary for Defense Programs, DP-1, Department of Energy, 1997

October 27, 2015 at 9:44 PM

Never happened. The poster keeps posting this, but there is no evidence it was ever said by Reis, and even if it were, everyone knows that Reis was already in 1997 well into his Alzheimer's disease. Continuing to post such a fabrication is at best disrespectful to Reis and his family.
10/28/2015 9:50 PM
Anonymous said…
Is it Compra Industries? Or COMPA? COMPA fills a lot of staff augmentation positions...
11/02/2015 9:58 AM
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