Los Alamos Closes Its Archives

The recent privatization of Los Alamos National Laboratory has been an unmitigated disaster. I know this is surprising--What! Privatization can often be a disaster? Shocking! Employee morale is at an all-time low and massive retirements are likely to start soon.

What concerns me though is the recent decision by the Laboratory to cut off its archives from researchers. As a public institution, run by the University of California, the Laboratory has traditionally been fairly open to researchers. But now they are truly acting like a corporation and refusing even basic archival requests. One of the most important institutions in the history of the United States has now become almost impossible to study. This reflects the general anti-archival information bias of many corporations and the Bush administration. It's a sad day for researchers.