High-Caliber Security Forces Negate Need to Federalize Nuclear Plant Defenders

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@EARTHLINK.NET>]

Index:



High-Caliber Security Forces Negate Need to Federalize Nuclear Plant Defenders

Energy Secretary Mulls Dump Site

Nuclear waste to arrive at Rokkasho village Jan. 22

IAEA inspectors to visit North Korea nuclear plant

Hiroshima, Nagasaki indignant at possible U.S. nuclear tests

=====================================================



High-Caliber Security Forces Negate Need to Federalize Nuclear Plant Defenders, 

Report Shows

  

WASHINGTON, Jan. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Nuclear plant security officers, most of 

whom have prior military, law enforcement or industrial security experience, are 

continually trained professionals with high levels of expertise and job satisfaction, a 

new industry security report reveals. 



Of the more than 5,000 trained professionals who comprise the industry security 

forces, about 67 percent have prior military, law enforcement or industrial security 

experience. The average annual salary is $35,000, and the retention rate of security 

personnel is 90 percent. On average, a nuclear security officer receives 270 hours of 

training prior to being deployed, and spends about 60 hours annually completing 

requalification training, with about 30 hours spent on anti-terrorist tactical training 

exercises, according to the Nuclear Energy Institute's (NEI) new report, "Implications 

of Security Force Federalization on Nuclear Power Plant Security." 



The report concludes that, because of the high caliber of existing security forces and 

because a power plant's management should be unified across operational and 

security functions, legislative proposals to federalize nuclear security forces offer no 

advantages. To the contrary, federalization of security officers could complicate 

responses to acts of terrorism or sabotage. 



However, the report does call for federal legislation that would grant a nuclear plant's 

security forces the authority to use deadly force, if necessary, to protect the plant, 

and that would provide the Nuclear Regulatory Commission with the authority to 

permit security forces to carry and use weapons, like automatic rifles and handguns, 

that are commensurate with the plant's responsibilities to meet regulatory security 

requirements. 



"No other private industrial facilities have the combination of robust physical 

protection, well-trained and armed security forces and emergency response 

capability that is found at every nuclear power plant in the United States," the report 

states. 



"Force effectiveness depends upon personal qualities and actions that are 

prescribed by standards, regulations or policies essentially independent of the 

officer's federal or private status. Based on established effectiveness criteria, there is 

no clear advantage to a federal security force. But there are significant 

disadvantages." 



The report warns that federalization legislation championed by Sen. Harry Reid of 

Nevada and Rep. Ed Markey of Massachusetts would compel the Nuclear 

Regulatory Commission to add 5,000 employees (tripling the agency's size) and 

create dual chains of authority, one for security and the other for plant operations. 

Doing so would decentralize authority and conceivably slow down the decision-

making process for emergency responses. 



Federalization of security officers also would pose other problems for effectively 

managing a plant. For example, plant management must achieve a balance between 

physical security features -- such as barriers and locked access doors -- and 

necessary access to plant equipment and systems. Separate lines of authority, 

acting under separate sets of regulations covering the federal government and the 

private sector, could create institutionalized conflicts. 



The report also concludes that federalization would have a negative impact on the 

quality of the plant security forces. Due to restrictions imposed by federal law and/or 

local laws associated with pension credits, many of the security officers could not 

serve as federal employees without losing some of those benefits. 



"They will choose to leave this service and seek different private employment," the 

report warns. 



In a letter sent last November to Sen. Reid, who has denigrated nuclear security 

personnel as "rent-a-cops," NRC Chairman Richard Meserve said the proposal to 

federalize nuclear security forces addresses "a non-existent problem." 



A direct link to the industry study is available on the home page of NEI's web site at 

http://www.nei.org . Nuclear power plants operate in 31 states providing electricity to 

one of every five homes and businesses in the nation. 



The Nuclear Energy Institute is the nuclear energy industry's Washington- based 

policy organization. 

-----------------



Energy Secretary Mulls Dump Site

  

LAS VEGAS (AP) - Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham emerged Monday from a 

tunnel at a proposed national nuclear waste dump, saying he was ready to make a 

decision on whether radioactive waste can be stored there safely. 



``This completes my process of study and research,'' Abraham said after his first visit 

to the Nevada site since becoming energy secretary a year ago. 



He didn't say when he would make a decision. 



The visit to the vast federal reservation drew protests from Nevada's elected officials 

who strongly oppose an Energy Department proposal to bury 77,000 tons of 

radioactive waste at Yucca Mountain, about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. 



Abraham became the third energy secretary to tour the mountain since the tunnel 

was completed in April 1997. Since then, the Energy Department has been 

conducting scientific studies of how heat, water and geology would affect storage of 

nuclear material. 



Nevada Sens. Harry Reid appeared Monday with Gov. Kenny Guinn and other 

elected officials on the steps of the federal courthouse in Las Vegas to underscore 

their opposition to the Yucca Mountain project. 



Nuclear waste is currently stored in casks at 103 commercial reactors and various 

industrial and military sites around the nation. 



Aides have said Abraham will make his recommendation this winter. Congress wants 

it by Feb. 28. 



After attending the final public hearing on the proposal last month, Abraham pledged 

a thorough review of scientific studies and more than 1,000 personal and written 

comments submitted during 66 hearings. 



He said his decision also would be based on ``compelling national interest.'' 



The decision is ``supposed to be based on sound science, not compelling national 

interest,'' Ensign said Monday. 



Nevada has already filed three federal lawsuits trying to block the proposal. 

-------------------



Nuclear waste to arrive at Rokkasho village Jan. 22

  

AOMORI, Japan, Jan. 8 (Kyodo) - A British-flagged freighter with a cargo of highly 

radioactive nuclear waste will arrive in Mutsu-Ogawara port in Rokkasho village, 

Aomori Prefecture, on Jan. 22, the Federation of Electric Power Companies 

announced Tuesday. 



The nuclear waste, owned by Tokyo, Chubu, Kansai, Chugoku, Shikoku and Kyushu 

electric power companies, was reprocessed by France's state-owned nuclear fuel 

firm Companie Generale des Materies Nuclearies (COGEMA) from spent nuclear 

fuel removed from Japanese nuclear reactors. 



This will be the seventh time that nuclear waste has returned to Japan after being 

reprocessed. 



The 152 units of glass-solidified nuclear waste will be stored at the Rokkasho nuclear 

waste storage facility of Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd. for 30 to 50 years. 



The British freighter, the 5,000-ton Pacific Sandpiper, left Cherbourg in northern 

France on Dec. 5 for Japan via the Panama Canal. 

------------------



IAEA inspectors to visit North Korea nuclear plant

  

VIENNA (Reuters) - International experts will visit a nuclear laboratory in North Korea 

for the first time later this month but will not be allowed to inspect the facility, the 

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Tuesday. 



A spokeswoman for the Vienna-based organization said the visit by a team of three 

inspectors was a small step toward normalizing relations with communist North 

Korea, which pulled out of the world nuclear watchdog in 1994. 



"We consider this to be small step in the right direction although there is still a long 

way to go," spokeswoman Melissa Fleming told Reuters. 



The inspectors will begin their four-day trip to North Korea on Jan. 15, visiting a 

nuclear laboratory in Nyongbyon for the first time. The communist state says the 

plant produces isotopes for medical and industrial use. 



IAEA experts have been monitoring nuclear activity in North Korea since 1994 but 

have not yet been allowed to conduct thorough plant inspections. The watchdog 

estimates it would take at least three years to inspect North Korea's nuclear program. 



North Korea, which is on a U.S. list of states accused of sponsoring terrorism, 

agreed a framework accord with the U.S. after leaving the IAEA in which it committed 

itself to freezing its plutonium production program. 



In return, Washington agreed to replace the state's graphite-moderated reactors with 

two light-water reactors, which are less useful in making bomb-grade material. 



A condition of the deal was that North Korea would allow the IAEA to inspect several 

nuclear waste sites and make sure all plutonium was under international safeguards. 

Without these inspections the nuclear reactors cannot be completed. 

-------------------



Hiroshima, Nagasaki indignant at possible U.S. nuclear tests

  

HIROSHIMA, Jan. 8 (Kyodo) - Residents of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the two cities 

hit with atomic bombs by the United States during World War II, expressed 

indignation Tuesday over the looming possibility of the U.S. resuming underground 

nuclear tests. 



Haruko Moritaki, 62, an antinuclear activist, said, ''I'd been afraid this moment would 

come some day because there have been some indications since (President George 

W.) Bush took power.'' 



She cited the U.S. skipping of a conference on early implementation of the nuclear 

Comprehensive Testing Ban Treaty and its unilateral withdrawal from the antiballistic 

missile treaty with Russia. 



''I'm afraid India, Pakistan and China could follow in the footsteps of the U.S.,'' she 

said. 



''I'm fuming just hearing about it,'' said Sunao Tsuboi, 76, secretary general of the 

Hiroshima federation of A-bomb sufferers. 



In Nagasaki, Hirotami Yamada, head of the Nagasaki federation of A-bomb sufferers, 

said, ''The unilateralism of the Bush administration has come this far...It is the United 

States that is becoming the worst rogue nation in the world.'' 



Hideo Tsuchiyama, former president of Nagasaki University, said, ''It was an 

expected course of action but it does reveal the contradictory nature of the Bush 

administration.'' 



''While urging on Russia the need to reduce strategic nuclear arsenals, it is trying to 

develop its nuclear weapons by resuming nuclear testing. The U.S. is only 

pretending it is keen on nuclear disarmament,'' he said. 



The Washington Post reported Tuesday, quoting governmental and nongovernment 

weapons specialists, that the Bush administration is expected to ask Congress about 

the possibility of resuming underground nuclear tests in the future. 



------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sandy Perle				Tel:(714) 545-0100 / (800) 548-5100   

Director, Technical			Extension 2306

ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Service	Fax:(714) 668-3149 	           

ICN Pharmaceuticals, Inc.		E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net

ICN Plaza, 3300 Hyland Avenue  	E-Mail: sperle@icnpharm.com   

Costa Mesa, CA 92626                    



Personal Website: http://sandy-travels.com

ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Website: http://www.dosimetry.com





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