CHAPTER 7,2 PERSONNEL CLEARANCE The personnel clearance program under the Contract was, because of the large numbers of personnel involved and the extent of the paper work required, by far the most involved and greatest time consuming activity of the Security Division. TYPES OF CLEARANCES Every person hired or considered for hire for overseas or Home Office work required some form of AEC security clearance. The minimum requirement for employment in any capacity was a "P" approval. This was a formal security approval for hire and permitted the holder access to AEC and military information classified as high as SECRET but not containing Restricted Data, as defined in the U. S. Atomic Energy Act of 1946. This approval was granted after an examination of the personnel security questionnaire and a satisfactory search of official government files which might contain derogatory information concerning the individual, The usual requirement was a search of the Federal Bureau of Investigation fingerprint and individual files in Washington, D. C., but under special circumstances a search of local files in the vicinity of the applicant's home address was considered acceptable. The other type of security approval was an AEC "Q" clearance based on a full scale investigation by the FBI. This permitted the individual access to all types of classified information, both AEC and military and including AEC Restricted Data. The extent of such access was dependent upon whether it was necessary in order that the individual might properly perform his job. It was, and is, a cardinal principle that no person is entitled to more access to classified information of any kind than his work requires. In addition to the two basic types of clearances described above, there were a number of combinations and variations of these which were used to fit particular circumstances. The "QP" clearance, as the name implies, was a combimation of "P* approval and "Q" clearance initiated in one submission. In this case the "P* approval was issued after the file search was completed, and the "Q" clearance was later granted after the completion of the full investigation, This procedure permitted the individual to proceed to the Jobsite when the "P" approval was received, The "Q" clearance fol- lowed later prior to the time that it was required by security regulations, This procedure was advantageous in that it provided two required clearances in one submission and permitted the employee to pro- ceed to Jobsite earlier than if he were required to wait for a *Q" clearance. In some cases, however, unneeded expense of a "Q" 7-4