Los Alamos Lab Director Resigns

ALBUQUERQUE, May 6 -- The director of Los Alamos National Laboratory, who led it through two years of turmoil but irked some workers with his brash style, is resigning.

G. Peter Nanos will be replaced May 16 by an interim director, Robert W. Kuckuck, who will oversee the federal nuclear lab until the University of California's management contract expires in September, the school said Friday.

When Nanos took over in January 2003, he inherited problems such as credit card fraud, allegations of weak fiscal oversight, equipment theft and the firing of two investigators who had pressed the issues with management.

On his first day, he told workers: "We are not a bunch of crooks. The trouble is I can't prove it."

Vowing to "drain the swamp" and restore public confidence, Nanos replaced top managers, instituted new purchasing rules and took inventory of lab property.

But when two classified disks allegedly vanished last summer, Nanos shut down all classified work at the lab in the hills of northern New Mexico. Months later, it was determined that the disks were not missing and that an inventory error was to blame.

The seven-month suspension of work cost as much as $367 million, the Energy Department estimated, though lab officials calculated a much lower loss figure.