Suit Targets Two DOE Labs.

Two watchdog groups want to prevent the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) from expanding its biodefense research. Nuclear Watch of New Mexico and Tri-Valley CAREs of California have asked a federal judge to halt construction of two biosafety level 3 (BSL-3) laboratory (labs) claiming that the department has not conducted adequate environmental and non-proliferation studies. The BSL-3 spaces now under construction at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California would enable the agency to work with agents such as anthrax and plague. The two groups have charged that DOE glossed over site-specific risks, such as how the labs might deal with an accidental spill or an earthquake and failed to tally the potential broader impacts of its entire bioterror program.