Polygraph Tests Set for Weapon Labs

The Energy Department plans to give polygraph tests to as many as 5,000 nuclear weapon scientists and other employees in sensitive jobs, senior department officials say, with wholesale testing to begin later this summer. Fifty-six counterintelligence officers, including some at the nuclear weapon labs, already have volunteered to take the tests, said Edward J. Curran, director of the department’s Office of Counterintelligence. The polygraphs are intended to beef up security and anti-espionage programs amid allegations that weapon labs’ practices are lax.