Nuclear safety program under review

By YAMIL BERARD and MELODY McDONALD
Star-Telegram Staff Writers

A program that critics contend would make the nation's nuclear power plants more vulnerable to terrorists may not be implemented next month because of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, U.S. officials said Tuesday.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which has been performing periodic counterterrorism drills at the plants for years, had been expected to hand over the drill program to plant owners in October. But the agency is now unsure that the pilot program, Safeguards Performance Assessment, will begin next month as planned.

"It's just too soon to determine whether changes in the policy or plans would be appropriate," NRC spokesman Victor Dricks said Tuesday.

The uncertainty about the new program comes at the heels of discussions by governments worldwide and nuclear power security experts who say little can be done to shield a nuclear power plant from a plane crash.

A direct hit on a nuclear plant by a modern jumbo jet at high speed "could create a Chernobyl situation," a U.S. official who declined to be identified told The Associated Press on Monday.

The NRC acknowledges that nuclear power plants were not designed to withstand a plane crash, but the agency said that it's unlikely that a plane could crash through the plant's concrete walls and other barriers.

Governments across the world have tightened security outside nuclear power and radioactive waste facilities as a precaution after the attacks in New York and Washington.

In the United States, combat jets are in the air and on "high alert" to protect nuclear plants, said Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., a critic of security at nuclear power plants across the nation.

"We face an opponent with nothing to lose and no hesitation in taking aim at civilian targets," Kerry wrote in a statement.

Comanche Peak, the nuclear power plant near Glen Rose, called in additional security officers, banned visitors within one mile of the plant, stopped accepting deliveries on site and closed the popular Squaw Creek recreation area nearby, said Jerry Lee, a spokesman for TXU Electric, which owns the plant.

Lee said that to reach the Comanche Peak reactors, a plane would have to penetrate the containment unit's concrete walls, which are 4 feet thick and reinforced by nine levels of 2-inch steel webbing. After that, it would have to break through a three-eighths inch steel plate.

If it did that, he said, the plane would still have to breach the vessels that house the reactors, most of which are below ground and covered by a missile shield.

In the unlikely event that that happened, Lee said, only low-level radioactive water would be released in the atmosphere, a release that would not immediately threaten public safety.

"There is a mental picture that this can be exploded," he said. "That is absolutely not true."

Lee said the reactors would not ignite unless their water source was cut off. And the water sources for the plant, he said, are vast.

Security measures also prevent sabotage from inside, he said. Those include background and psychological checks, and routine drug testing of plant employees, as well as security devices that limit access to areas near the reactors.

Anyone seeking access to the 29-acre "protected area" must get through an explosives-detecting device, a full-body metal detector and an X-ray machine, Lee said. Visitors must also put a hand down on a machine that will match their prints to a premade key-card.

The "vital areas," where the reactors are kept, are even more protected, Lee said. For security reasons, he would not elaborate.

In addition, Lee said, the plant has motion detectors, video cameras, pressure devices in the ground and a "well-numbered, armed security force."

"I would like to communicate to the citizens that the construction and operation of this plant ensures their health and safety," Lee said.

Still, well before Sept. 11, the NRC was under criticism that some nuclear plants are vulnerable to terrorist attacks

The Nuclear Control Institute has long advocated tougher security against terorrists, such as big barricades and open areas to guard against truck bombs.

State Rep. Lon Burnam, D-Fort Worth, a longtime critic of nuclear power safety, said the potential for attacks on such plants is troubling.

"It's a legitimate concern, and I'm not at all surprised people are concerned," Burnam said.

The NRC established its drill program to identify security lapses, Dricks said. At one point, the agency concluded that nearly half of the nation's nuclear reactors had serious security gaps. One inspector smuggled a fake pistol past a plant security check. At another reactor, a team was able to reach sensitive areas and simulate sabotaging equipment, according to reports at the time quoting the NRC security specialist who directed the program.

But in 1998, the Clinton administration quietly eliminated the program, blaming budget cuts.

Then after critics, including members of Congress, asserted that the government was giving in to the nuclear industry, the security program was brought back.

In 2000-01, six of the 11 plants tested by the NRC did not prevent mock intruders from causing core damage, according to Paul Fain, spokesman for the Union of Concerned Scientists, which wants more vigorous testing of security measures.

Fain's group and other critics contend that the plans to let plant operators conduct the terrorist drills will weaken oversight.

"The whole direction of the nuclear industry is they don't want to be graded on their performance," said Edwin Lyman, scientific director for the Nuclear Control Institute in Washington, D.C., a watchdog group with a focus on nuclear nonproliferation.

In contrast, the Nuclear Energy Institute, an industry organization whose members include 275 nuclear plant owners worldwide, says the new program will improve security.

Under the new Safeguard Performance Assessment program, mock adversary drills would occur every three years. Under the old program, the Operational Safeguards Response Evaluation, the simulated drills occur every eight years, NEI spokesman Steve Kerekes said Tuesday.

He also said the NRC has stepped up its oversight of nuclear reactors in the past three years.

"What we had previously from the early days of the industry was a greater focus on compliance," Kerekes said. "It said you will have X and such in place to achieve this objective. What we're going to do now is something more focused on real risk and what we've learned over time. We have an industry that has about 3,000 years combined of operating experience."

Yamil Berard, (817) 685-3813
yberard@star-telegram.comMelody McDonald, (817) 390-7386
mjmcdonald@star-telegram.com

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2001 Star-Telegram, Fort Worth, Texas