{"id":3808,"date":"2002-10-31T15:00:22","date_gmt":"2002-10-31T20:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/blog\/?p=3808"},"modified":"2026-05-17T07:58:52","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T12:58:52","slug":"lie-detector-screening-to-stay-in-nuclear-labs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/blog\/2002\/10\/31\/lie-detector-screening-to-stay-in-nuclear-labs\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Lie-Detector Screening to Stay in Nuclear Labs&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry\">\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Oakland Tribune<\/em> staff writer Ian Hoffman reports. Excerpt: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>Hundreds of nuclear weapons scientists and intelligence analysts will still be strapped to the polygraph machine for the time being, despite a recent report concluding that polygraphs miss spies and tar the innocent as security risks.<\/p><p>The U.S. Energy Department is racing to change its routine polygraph screening program before a six-month congressional deadline. But its lawyers argue that Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham is legally barred from suspending the controversial lie-detector tests until a new program is in place, according to an internal memo issued Wednesday.<\/p><p>&#8220;We are committed to moving rapidly on this issue but, until the secretary issues new regulations, we are obligated by law to continue the present program,&#8221; wrote Linton F. Brooks, acting chief of the Energy Department&#8217;s National Nuclear Security Administration that oversees Lawrence Livermore, Sandia and Los Alamos weapons labs.<\/p><p>More than 750 Sandia and Livermore employees in California who handle plutonium or nuclear weapons or have access to human intelligence face polygraph tests this year.<\/p><p>A Livermore union, the <a href=\"https:\/\/upte.org\/national-labs\">Society of Professional Scientists and Engineers<\/a>, had written Brooks urging suspension of the tests after a panel of national experts found that polygraphs were based on poor science and too unreliable to justify such heavy use by federal national-security agencies to screen their workers.<\/p><p>Given Brooks&#8217; memo, the union now will ask Congress to scrap the law requiring polygraphs.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Oakland Tribune staff writer Ian Hoffman reports. Excerpt: Hundreds of nuclear weapons scientists and intelligence analysts will still be strapped to the polygraph machine for the time being, despite a recent report concluding that polygraphs miss spies and tar the innocent as security risks. The U.S. Energy Department is racing to change its routine polygraph &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[287,32,448,350,70],"class_list":["post-3808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-polygraph","tag-doe","tag-labor","tag-lawrence-livermore-national-laboratory","tag-nnsa","tag-polygraph-screening","anons"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>&quot;Lie-Detector Screening to Stay in Nuclear Labs&quot; - AntiPolygraph.org News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/blog\/2002\/10\/31\/lie-detector-screening-to-stay-in-nuclear-labs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"&quot;Lie-Detector Screening to Stay in Nuclear Labs&quot; - AntiPolygraph.org News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Oakland Tribune staff writer Ian Hoffman reports. 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