 Seal of the U. S. Department of Energy |
Q clearance orQ access authorization is theU.S. Department of Energy (DOE) security clearance required to accessTop SecretRestricted Data,Formerly Restricted Data, and National Security Information, as well as Secret Restricted Data. Restricted Data (RD) is defined in theAtomic Energy Act of 1954 and covers nuclear weapons and related materials. The lower-levelL clearance is sufficient for access to Secret Formerly Restricted Data (FRD) and National Security Information, as well as Confidential Restricted Data and Formerly Restricted Data.[1][2] Access to Restricted Data is only granted on aneed-to-know basis to personnel with appropriate clearances.
A Q Clearance is equivalent to aU.S. Department of DefenseTop Secret clearance.[2] According to the Department of Energy, "Q access authorization corresponds to the background investigation and administrative determination similar to what is completed by other agencies for a Top Secret National Security Information access clearance."[2]
In addition to classification levels, three categories of classified matter are identified: Restricted Data (RD), Formerly Restricted Data (FRD), and National Security Information (NSI), as well as a class of access-restricted materials:special nuclear material (SNM). The employee must have a security level clearance consistent with their assignment. Common combinations are reflected in the table on the right/above.[3]
Much of the DOE information at this level requires access toCritical Nuclear Weapon Design Information (CNWDI, pronounced "SIN-widee").[4] Such information bears the page marking Top Secret//RD-CNWDI and the paragraph marking (TS-N) or (TS//RD-CNWDI). The DOE security clearance process is overseen by the Department of Energy Office of Hearings and Appeals.
DOE clearances apply for access specifically relating to atomic or nuclear related materials ("Restricted Data" under theAtomic Energy Act of 1954). The clearance is issued predominantly to non-military personnel. In 1946,U.S. Army Counter Intelligence Corps MajorWilliam L. Uanna, in his capacity as the first Chief of the Central Personnel Clearance Office at the newly formedAtomic Energy Commission, named and established the criteria for the Q Clearance.[5] The security clearance process at the DOE is adjudicated by the DOE Office of Hearings and Appeals (OHA), where an individual whose security clearance is at issue may seek to appeal a security clearance decision to an administrative judge, and subsequently, to an appeal panel.[6]
As of 1993[update], Q Clearances required asingle-scope background investigation of the previous ten years of the applicant's life by both theOffice of Personnel Management and theFederal Bureau of Investigation, and as of 2019[update], cost $5,596.[7]
As of April 2021,[update] there were 92,177 people who held a Q clearance.[8]
"Q" Clearance was a 1986 novel byPeter Benchley, satirizingCold War secrecy and politics.[9][10]
In "Nellis", episode 7 of season 6 of the television showArcher,Sterling Archer uses a Q clearance to gain access toArea 51 after landing illegally on the airstrip.[citation needed]
InRobert Heinlein's 1956 novelThe Door Into Summer, the narrator says his pre-1960 Q clearance let him "soak up" much classified technology.
In the 2022 movieMoonfall Jocinda Fowler, played by actressHalle Berry, is given Q clearance by the director ofNASA (Albert Hutchings) who gives her his ID access badge once he determines that collision with the Moon is imminent.
In the 2023 filmOppenheimer, the1954 security hearing to reviewJ. Robert Oppenheimer’s Q clearance is a central focus.
TheQAnon conspiracy theory is named such because the4chan and8chan posters, who in 2017 created the persona behind the conspiracy theory, claim to be an individual with Q level security clearance.[11]