A U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) employee has lost his security clearance and access to sensitive materials, including nuclear information, after it was discovered he had stored an astonishing 187,000 explicit images on his work laptop. The discovery was made when the department was alerted to a significant backup of personal files on the government network.
The incident, which occurred in March 2023, led to the immediate revocation of his clearance. A year later, in 2024, an administrative judge ruled that his access to the network should not be reinstated.
The employee attempted to justify his actions by claiming he had collected the images over 30 years and intended to use them as training data for an AI image generator. He further stated that during a period of depression, he began experimenting with AI tools as a way to cope with feelings of extreme isolation and loneliness, exploring content categorized as “robot pornography.”
During a hearing, the employee presented documentation supporting his claims of mental health issues. He argued that a change in medication would prevent similar episodes in the future and assured that he had implemented measures to ensure personal files would not be stored on DOE networks again.
However, a DOE psychologist who evaluated the employee concluded that his prognosis for avoiding future mental health episodes that could compromise his judgment and trustworthiness was only ‘fair.’ The psychologist also noted that the employee had not provided sufficient evidence to alleviate the security concerns stemming from his misuse of government IT resources.