Nuclear Power Plants: Are Security Forces Asleep at the Wheel?

With news today that the United States Nuclear Watchdog, Dale Klein, Chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, is set to visit the Turkey Point Nuclear Reactor Power Plant in South Miami-Dade Florida we thought we’d look at just how safe our nuclear reactors are from a surprise terrorist attack.

A 1982 study by Sandia National Laboratories found that a core meltdown and radiological release at one of the two operating Indian Point reactors could cause 50,000 near-term deaths from acute radiation syndrome and 14,000 long-term deaths from cancer. When these results were originally disclosed to the press, an NRC official tried to reassure the public by saying that the kind of accident the study considered would be less likely than “a jumbo jet crashing into a football stadium during the Superbowl.” Source – UCSUSA

Klein’s visit is being called a “tour” and not a safety inspection even though the plant was recently fined after it was discovered that security guards were found asleep on the job and had removed firing pins from their weapons. There were also reports of “excessive” overtime for plant operators, with some working 70 t0 80 hour work weeks.

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The NRC’s Director of Public Affairs says there will be “discussions” about the number of issues related to security and plant management.

We wondered in matters of Homeland Security just how safe nuclear power plants are in the face of a potential terrorist attack.

The Journal of Nuclear Medicine took a look at potential of terrorist attacks against nuclear facilities which include nuclear reactors and fuel storage depots.

According to the JNM, nuclear power plants are potential terrorist targets but have mitigating factors such as “being well secured and protected, contained by walls of steel and concrete that are several meters thick”. These types of barriers “prevent dispersal of radioactive material should “melt down” from the heat produced by the radioactive fission products occur”. The barrier also acts to protect the reactor from “air or other outside explosive attack, even high level explosives would be unlikely to penetrate”.

“A Few City Blocks to Several Miles”

They went on to state that if a terrorist attack on a nuclear facility were able to penetrate a reactor and breach containment then the subsequent release of radioactive material would be on a “smaller scale than Chernobyl” and depending on the nature of the explosives used and material attacked, “the area at risk for health effects would range from a few city blocks to several miles.”

This presupposes an attack from outside the plant but what if one came from inside? What if terrorists were able to breach the nuclear facility by way of overpowering sleeping guards who had removed the firing pins from their pistols?

In 2003 the Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued regulatory orders to tighten nuclear plant access. It also issued three orders to restrict security officer work hours, to establish security training force and qualification requirements, and increase the “design basis threat”, the area that the security forces must be able to defend.

Private Security Guards Guard Our Nuclear Power Plants

Nuclear power plants are guarded by private companies. The NRC devised a new DBT, or design basis threat, which represents ” the largest reasonable threat against which a regulated private guard force should be expected to defend under existing law,” according to the NRC announcement.

A look at the Design Basis Threat

Clarifies that physical protection systems are required to protect against
diversion and theft of fissile material;

Expands the assumed capabilities of adversaries to operate as one or more
teams and attack from multiple entry points;

Assumes that adversaries are willing to kill or be killed and are
knowledgeable about specific target selection;

Expands the scope of vehicles that licensees must defend against to
include water vehicles and land vehicles beyond four-wheel-drive type;

And yet the incident at the Turkey Point Nuclear Facility in Florida shows that even with all the new rules and regulations the security guards employed by a private firm were caught asleep at the wheel. Not once, but several times. They were found to be “willfully inattentive”, to either been caught asleep while on duty or they were caught covering for their colleagues who were asleep while on duty.

In September 2004 the GAO had concerns about the company that guards an estimated half of the nuclear power plants in the country, Wackenhut. Wackenhut had been accused by the Dept. of Energy of “cheating” on previous “force-on-force” exercises.

Spent Fuel Storage

Spent nuclear fuel is stored in a pool of water in the reactor building then, at some sites, transferred to “dry casks on plant grounds”. According to a report by CRS given to Congress, it’s when the spent nuclear fuel has been removed from the reactor containment structure that concern has been raised of the vulnerability to a terrorist attack whether by air or from inside.

If terrorists could breach a spent fuel pool’s concrete walls and drain the
cooling water, the spent fuel’s zirconium cladding could overheat and catch fire.

The National Academy of Science wrote that such an attack would be possible and could lead to the “release of large amounts of radioactive material”.

Amazingly in the CRC report companies that are licensed to supply security guards are required to provide only five guards per plant. Spokespersons for the nuclear industry replied that the real numbers of security forces guarding the current 65 plants “numbers more than 5,000″ an average of 75 per site. We hope to God they’re telling the truth and we also hope they’ve made sure their guards are awake and have put the firing pins back in their pistols.

By LBG

Image – US NRC
Source – Miami Herald – Nuclear Watchdog to visit Turkey Point

Source – The Journal of Nuclear Medicine – Understanding Radiologic and Nuclear Terrorism as Public Health Threats: Preparedness and Response Perspectives
Source – FOX News – Arizona Nuke May Be Terrorist Target
Source – CRS Report for Congress

Tags: NRC, nuclear power plants, terrorist attacks on nuclear power plants, Turkey Point Nuclear Power Plant