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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (43474)	9/12/2002 12:52:54 PM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Nuke Plants Called Unprepared: Report 5:50 am PST, 12 September 2002 Nuclear power plants across the United States are unprepared and "unready" for terrorist attacks, even though they have undergone massive security upgrades since the Sept. 11 attacks a year ago. The Christian Science Monitor reported Thursday that security guards at several private facilities complain they are undertrained; specifically, that they only receive weapons training once a year, that anti-terrorist drills are weak, and that they are unsure if they can use deadly force because those rules are set on the state level. Unlike federal nuclear facilities, not a single private plant has undergone mock attacks designed to test security in more than a year, the paper said. Also, guards say they are underpaid and required to work exhausting amounts of overtime because plant operators are unwilling to hire extra personnel. The study was conducted by the Project on Government Oversight, or POGO, a nonpartisan government watchdog group based in Washington, D.C. The authors of the study concluded that based on evidence, most private plants are still unprepared for terrorist attacks, a year after 9-11. "If you equate the Department of Energy to the NFL" on nuclear security preparations, many of the plants in the study "are junior high school," says Peter Stockton, an author of the report and a former special assistant for nuclear security during the Clinton administration under former Energy Secretary Bill Richardson. The results suggest that a significant number of plants "have done the least amount required to protect the American public from a suicidal terrorist attack" on a plant, says Danielle Brian, the group's executive director. Officials at the Nuclear Energy Institute told the paper that the industry has not been idle, however. Some 1,000 guards have been added to 103 nuclear plants – bringing the total nationally to around 6,000 – while millions of dollars have been spent beefing up security technology. They also say the scope of POGO's report is limited – 22 guards from 24 commercial reactors at 13 sites around the country. 7am.com