Backyard Threats

While North Korea and other nuclear-capable countries represent a possible threat from abroad, security measures taken at commercial nuclear facilities in our owan backyard are helping to ensure American safety on the Homefront.

“The past year has been marked by significant progress in enhancing security at our nation’s civilian nuclear facilities,” said Edward McGaffigan, Jr., commissioner of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), at a recent information conference. “It is the single issue which has most dominated our time since [the] Sept. 11 [attacks].”

Since Sept. 11, the NRC and the nuclear industry have worked together to institute new security measures, including an increase in security zone patrols, and the installation of new technology — especially barriers to vehicle attacks and surveillance equipment.

Extensive security measures protect U.S. nuclear plants from sabotage. The NRC requires nuclear power plants to take adequate measures to protect the public from the possibility of exposure to radioactive release from such acts, including:

• the physical construction of the containment building for reactors;

• security personnel, procedures, and surveillance equipment; and

• security clearance background checks and daily monitoring for plant employees.

Nuclear power plant containment buildings — where the reactors are located — include steel-reinforced concrete containment structures, coupled with multiple, redundant safety and plant shutdown systems. They are designed to withstand the impact of hurricanes, tornadoes, floods and airborne objects carrying a substantial force. Fortified physical barriers at nuclear plants resist penetration from outside forces.

Around-the-clock armed security forces patrol every nuclear plant under the watch of advanced surveillance equipment. According to the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), security forces at nuclear plants have been increased more than 33 percent since Sept. 11, to nearly 7,000 officers at 67 U.S. sites.

The security forces and emergency procedures are continually tested in mock drills. Federally-mandated training procedures include protecting against a threat by a well-trained para-military force armed with automatic weapons and explosives.

In mock drills conducted under NRC supervision, highly skilled, professionally trained intruders make direct frontal attacks on the nuclear plants. They are provided with all information about the plant regarding the location of and pathway to vital equipment, as if they were previously informed by an insider, and proceed to attempt to reach the equipment to disable it. If a drill the energy company chooses to stage is not sufficiently rigorous, the company would be cited for a violation of NRC regulations.

The NRC then evaluates the efficiency of the plant’s security measures, and necessary enhancements are implemented.

In all, the NEI estimates that in 2001, the nuclear industry averaged $5 million in yearly security expenditures. In 2003, the institute estimates that figure will rise to $7.3 million. Since Sept. 11, the industry has spent more than $370 million in security-related improvements.

Nuclear plant personnel procedures are designed to protect from internal threats — personnel that may be aiding terrorists. New employees and contractor employees must pass stringent background checks regarding employment, education and criminal histories as well as drug and alcohol screening tests and psychological evaluations. The NRC also requires energy companies to conduct random drug and alcohol tests of at least 50 percent of employees annually.

Because of the nuclear security programs and safety strategies, the FBI classifies nuclear plants as “hardened targets.”

“We have a firm foundation on which to build,” McGaffigan says, “and we will continue to ensure that these facilities are the best defended and most physically hardened facilities in our critical infrastructure.”