Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory plans to install high-powered machine guns over the next few months capable of hitting land vehicles or aircraft almost a mile away in the event of a terrorist attack

"A lot of people are willing to die if they can kill lots of Americans ... You want to make clear that when they come here to die (by attacking the lab), they die for a failure," the blunt-speaking Brooks said at a press conference at Livermore on Thursday, where he unveiled one of the guns.

He said the guns will be operational later this year after the lab's guards are trained and the weapons and related equipment are purchased. Brooks insisted the Gatling gun purchase is unrelated to a recent announcement that the lab might double its supply of plutonium...the lab's security force [is] employed by Lawrence Livermore and UC [University of California], which runs the lab under contract with the Energy Department.... lab officials want to ensure that in [the event of a "military-style" terrorist attack either from a ground vehicle or an aircraft]..., lab security guards can quell the invasion immediately without any Livermore staff losses.
In November [2005], the Energy Department authorized the lab to increase its amount of stored plutonium to an amount exceeding 3,000 pounds -- enough for as many as about 300 nuclear bombs...The authorization [for the new defensive measures] came three months after an advisory panel to the department urged the lab to ship almost all of its nuclear bomb materials -- estimated to be as much as 1,540 pounds worth -- to a remote, safer site because of the growing suburbanization of the Livermore area to prevent a potential terrorist attack.

In February 2004, an intruder managed to drive a truck inside the Livermore site security perimeter. During the incident guards failed to activate recently installed pop-up barriers, according to a report six months later by the Energy Department's inspector general.