By Ryan Alessi
Scripps Howard News Service
After Sept. 11, many are
looking over their shoulders, fearing the next attack, the next target. And some
energy experts fear that perforated security systems at the nation's nuclear
power plants have left the door open for another, even deadlier attack.
"For this breed of terrorist, there's this glee of using our own technology
against us," said Dan Hirsch, president of the Committee to Bridge the Gap, a
California-based watchdog group.
During security tests over the last decade, teams of ex-Navy SEALs have
penetrated nearly half of the nation's 103 nuclear power plants - even with as
much as six months' warning for a test.
Teams coordinated by retired SEAL Capt. David Orrik try to break into plants
and reach the nuclear reactor. They choose targets that, if reached by
terrorists, could lead to Chernobyl-like meltdowns.
The industry says these tests are meant to help them plug holes in security
systems. "That's why we do them," said Steve Kerekes, spokesman for the Nuclear
Energy Institute, an industry association.
But some groups that keep tabs on the industry, such as the Nuclear Control
Institute in Washington, say plants that fail any one of those tests should be
shut down.
Complicating matters, says institute executive director Tom Clements, the
U.S. government has proposed that nuclear plants run their own tests instead of
the government-hired ex-SEALs.
"They cannot be trusted with a self-regulating program with something of this
importance," Clements said. "We feel there's got to be some kind of external
oversight."
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has not shelved the self-check pilot
program, still set to start this fall.
"I think it would be fair to say we're still evaluating what changes in
policy and procedures might be appropriate," said commission spokesman Victor
Dricks, who referred all specific questions about security standards to its Web
page, www.nrc.gov.
The site says it "did not specifically contemplate attacks by aircraft" on
nuclear reactors and has not yet performed engineering analysis on what damage a
crash would cause.
The agency's first response to the terrorist attacks was a two-paragraph
alert Tuesday that recommended, "purely as a precaution," that nuclear plants
shift to their highest level of security. "Details of the heightened security
are classified," it said.
In Alabama, the Farley Nuclear Plant, operated by Southern Nuclear Co., has
closed its doors to visitors since then and added more guards. The Oyster Creek
plant in New Jersey, owned by AmerGen Energy, did the same.
But Alice Gordon, a spokeswoman for Southern Nuclear, says her company is
still worried that the plants are not in no-fly zones.
Hirsch, of the Committee to Bridge the Gap, says the commission should have
demanded more security, not just recommended it. He also wants the U.S.
government to step up its involvement with nuclear security.
"I think it would have a tremendous chilling effect on an attack if you had
armed troops outside nuclear plants," he said.
The regulatory commission still does not require facilities to take steps
against possible boat or air attacks. Only in 1993 did it adopt a plan to
prevent truck bombings, a decision Hirsch fought 15 years for.
But Kerekes, of the industry trade group, says facilities still are trying to
grapple with new security demands and would need more federal help to
effectively guard against everything Hirsch wants.
"We are not guaranteeing that our sites are impervious to every single threat
imaginable that you can throw at them," Kerekes said. "As strongly as our plants
are protected, the federal regulations recognize that stopping an enemy of the
state could be beyond any one company."
Meanwhile, the Nuclear Control Institute is not only pushing for continued
use of ex-Navy SEALs to test security, it also wants stricter warnings or even
plant shutdowns if a facility fails to stop all test teams.
THE END
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