http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-000075976sep22.st
ory?coll=la%2Dnews%Da%5Fs
September 22, 2001
MILITARY THREATS
Federal Regulators Reviewing Security at Nuclear Power Plants
Terrorism: The NRC concedes that facilities could not withstand a
jet crash. Preparedness for ground attacks has also been questioned.
By DEBORAH SCHOCH, TIMES ENVIRONMENTAL WRITER
Federal nuclear regulators said Friday that they will review
anti-terrorist safeguards at the nation's 103 commercial nuclear
plants.
Even before the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the
Pentagon, security procedures at many nuclear power plants had been
criticized as seriously inadequate by government inspectors.
On Friday, Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials said they were
revisiting a range of security issues, not the least of which is the
vulnerability of nuclear facilities to airplane crashes. The NRC
acknowledged that nuclear plants were not built to withstand the
impact of aircraft such as Boeing 757s and 767s, and that "detailed
engineering analyses of a large airliner crash have not yet been
performed," according to a news release. "Given the situation has
changed in ways no one could have predicted--no one had envisioned
airliners being used like kamikaze bombers--it does raise questions
that had not been seriously looked at before," William Beecher, the
NRC's director of public affairs, said Friday evening.
The NRC's statements did little to reassure critics who have said for
several years that federal regulators were not doing enough to
protect plants against terrorist attacks from the ground.
David Orrik, director of the NRC's Operational Safeguards Response
Evaluation program, said Friday that from 1991 to 2000,
anti-terrorist exercises showed "a potential vulnerability" at nearly
50% of the 68 plants tested. In simulated sabotage exercises,
government employees or contractors attempt to breach plant security
and get close to the reactor core. Severe damage to a core could
allow the release of enough radiation to endanger the public.
A self-policing program by the nuclear power industry is scheduled to
start this fall, in which plant operators themselves would test their
facilities for anti-terrorist readiness, with NRC officials reviewing
results.
The NRC in July approved the one-year pilot of the so-called
Safeguards Performance Assessment Program. During the pilot period,
the agency insists that it will continue to do its own security
testing. It plans to conduct exercises at only six plants this year,
however, instead of the usual eight.
An industry spokesman defended the pilot program, saying that testing
would occur every three years, compared to every eight years for the
current NRC-run operation. Federal regulators would still review
results, said Steve Kerekes, spokesman for the Nuclear Energy
Institute, a policy organization for nuclear plant owners and
operators.
Since Sept. 11, environmental groups that monitor the safety of
nuclear power plants have renewed criticism of NRC plans to give the
industry more responsibility for testing plant security.
"It's shocking that [NRC officials] continue to stick their heads in
the sand at a time like this," said Dan Hirsch, president of the
Committee to Bridge the Gap, a nuclear watchdog group based in Los
Angeles.
"There's not the slightest indication that they're taking this
situation seriously and implementing appropriate measures," said
Hirsch, who believes the commission should recommend that the
nation's governors call out the National Guard to protect plants and
institute other urgent safeguards, such as fresh background checks on
plant employees.
Meanwhile, NRC officials reversed earlier assurances that plants
could withstand the crash of a jumbo jet.
Spokesmen for both the commission and two Western U.S. nuclear
facilities had said Sept. 11 that domestic plants were built to
withstand the impact of a Boeing 747. But officials said Friday that
is simply untrue.
The San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, the nuclear complex
closest to Los Angeles, "is not designed for plane crashes," said Ray
Golden, spokesman for Southern California Edison, which operates the
plant.
"We're not on any of the flight paths, so that was not considered a
credible threat," Golden said Friday.
Since the attacks in New York and Washington, concern about nuclear
plant safety has mounted among nuclear critics and some elected
officials.
In New England, Vermont Gov. Howard Dean and Rep. Edward J. Markey
(D-Mass.) on Thursday wrote NRC Chairman Richard A. Meserve with
concerns about anti-terrorist protections.
Dean called for reassessing security at the Vermont Yankee nuclear
plant on the Connecticut River near Brattleboro, which, he reported,
was cited for security lapses in 1998 and again early this year. Even
though he has been told these deficiencies have been corrected, Dean
wrote, "I would like the confidence that an overall review of Vermont
Yankee security and security culture has been undertaken."
Markey's letter is more wide-ranging, raising such questions as why
the NRC only recommended Sept. 11 that plants nationwide go to their
highest state of readiness, rather than issuing an outright order.
The congressman also questions the pending changes in the way the NRC
tests the readiness of commercial plants to withstand terrorist
attacks.
The self-policing program "lowers standards, it lowers costs and it
increases profitability of shareholders," Markey said.
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