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Markey- NRC lax on security - NY Times Article
Bill Smirnow wrote:
> http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-utilities
> -nuclear-security.html
> Clamp on Drills Seen Raising Risk at U.S. Reactors
> By REUTERS
>
> Filed at 11:34 a.m. ET
>
> SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - When nuclear regulators
> put U.S. atomic reactors on high alert after the
> Sept. 11 attacks, they also froze training drills
> for the plant's security forces, a move critics
> warn weakens their defense.
>
> Training exercises to simulate ``force-on-force''
> attacks to test security at the plants were
> postponed while the federal Nuclear Regulatory
> Commission launched a ``top-to-bottom'' review of
> overall security at the nation's 103 commercial
> reactors.
>
> The security drills, in which a handful of armed
> commandos assisted by an ``insider'' launch a mock
> attack on each plant once every eight years, may
> be reinstated but the timing is uncertain, said
> Breck Henderson, a commission spokesman.
>
> The commission's continuing security review may
> turn up a new ``threat basis'' for the power
> plants that could change the nature of exercises
> to test the plants, Henderson said.
>
> ``We have not decided when we will do (assault)
> exercises again. We are proceeding very
> carefully,'' he added.
>
> But critics of the commission said the nuclear
> industry is moving too slowly and should beef up
> security training now that its reactor fleet,
> which generates 20 percent of the nation's
> electricity, is on the highest alert.
>
> ``The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is still
> living in a pre-Sept. 11 world,'' said
> Massachusetts Rep. Edward Markey, senior Democrat
> on the House Energy and Commerce Committee and a
> frequent critic of the agency.
>
> FACING THREAT
>
> ``They have not permanently upgraded the security
> regulations at nuclear reactors to ensure that
> they are protected against the level of threat we
> now know we face,'' Markey told Reuters.
>
> The Sept. 11 attacks by hijacked airliners raised
> the specter of a big plane smashing into the
> hardened buildings housing atomic reactors and
> triggering the release of poisonous radioactive
> material.
>
> That concern has widened, however, to include more
> vulnerable plant targets like water intake
> systems, pools where the used radioactive fuel is
> stored, and adjacent sites for transformers and
> other equipment.
>
> Responding to questions by Markey about security
> at atomic plants, the agency said it suspended the
> exercises because ``the current elevated threat
> environment would pose significant safety hazards
> to the (plants') employees and negatively impact
> security effectiveness.''
>
> Security manpower is a big problem, said Doug
> Walters, senior project manager at the
> Washington-based Nuclear Energy Institute, a trade
> group for nuclear utilities.
>
> ``We support doing exercises but you need to
> involve a lot of people. A high-level alert is not
> the right time,'' Walters said, adding that plants
> have hired more security workers but about 29
> percent of the employees are working overtime.
>
> CHANGING TESTS
>
> The industry also is working to make a significant
> change in the way it tests security forces.
>
> The nuclear regulators would like to drop their
> mock attacks program in favor of a new utility-run
> effort called ''safeguards performance
> assessment,'' a training scheme with assault
> drills every three years.
>
> The program would shift the regulatory agency's
> role from manager to observer, although the
> commission would have to approve rules for the new
> system and evaluate results from the exercises.
>
> Twenty nuclear plants had agreed to join pilot
> tests of the new training program but the Sept. 11
> attacks also put this on hold and no start date
> has been set, Walters said.
>
> However, Markey said the changes have been
> proposed because the commission and utilities
> ``are simply embarrassed'' by poor results from
> past attack exercises.
>
> Nuclear utilities also run separate exercises to
> test training and response to equipment breakdowns
> that may set off a radioactive release.
>
> These drills, which are ``graded'' every two years
> by the commission, to date have not included mock
> attacks.
>
> In the absence of regular exercises, nuclear
> security forces are keeping up their regular
> training and marksmanship, and utilities are
> meeting more often with military officials and
> local public safety agencies, utilities said.
>
> ``The emergency planning and communications work
> is being revamped,'' said Jeff Lewis, spokesman
> for PG&E Corp.'s Diablo Canyon nuclear station in
> California, one of the biggest power plants on the
> West Coast.
>
> Diablo Canyon will run an equipment exercise in
> October, but Lewis said he would not be surprised
> if ``a terrorist incident'' is part of the
> scenario.
>
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