Bulletin of Atomic Scientists Says Nukes Ill-prepared for Terror Attack

[Paul_Prichard@DOM.COM]

I started my commercial nuclear career at Connecticut Yankee in 1980.  Some

of the staff who started the place up told of the days when the security

force consisted of "Sarge", CY's Barney Fife.  People could drive their

cars into the turbine building and have a mechanic work on it.  Coffee and

donuts would be served at the containment control point during outages.  A

beer or two at lunch (off-site) was not uncommon.  But new security

regulations went into effect and by the time I arrived I had to have the

tee shirt I was carrying X-rayed simply because it was being carried into

the plant.  I'd watch with amusement on back shift as the guards responded

to an intruder alert drill, running around with their shotguns.



Not any more.  I like the guys with the guns now.  At times, it seems as

though security and health physics have a lot in common, particularly this:

people really like to have us around when the #%*@ hits the fan.  But we

can only do so much.  We are trained to handle the routine and the off

normal.  Our emergency plan trains us in how to handle the "worst case

scenario"  whereby we belch the contents of the core over the countryside.

It always has.



However, none of the scenarios had anything to do with aircraft or

explosions.  Why?  Because that would imply war.  That's how President Bush

characterized the state of affairs following  9-11.  Since when does a

nuclear power plant have to be designed to be war-proof?  The Constitution

gives the responsibility of providing for the common defense to the federal

government.  We should leave defense and intelligence gathering to them and

take whatever prudent actions we can at the local level.  Some of those

prudent actions should include beefed up security.  (OBTW, we have a lot

more than 5 guards on duty.)  I saw a lot of changes in response in 1990

with the Gulf War.



"The N.R.C. and the industry seem to be stuck in a time warp of a quarter

of a century ago, and are simply hoping that the problem goes away,"  It

appears to me that the first part of that statement is true.  But I

disagree with the second part.  Yes, I hope terrorism goes away.  But the

entire country is in the process of rethinking the notion of security.  It

seems to be the nature of government bureaucracy to move slowly on

virtually everything.  But the regulatory process is not the solution to

security issues in these times.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Just an analog guy in a digital world.

Paul Prichard

Millstone Station

Paul_Prichard@dom.com

(860) 437-2806



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