Extraordinary security measures are in effect at Georgia's two nuclear power plants as part of an effort to protect the nation's energy infrastructure against terrorist attack. Plant Vogtle near Augusta and Plant Hatch near Baxley were included in last week's unprecedented directive from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission that all 103 of the nation's nuclear reactors at 66 sites be put on the highest level of security.
Both plants in Georgia are operated by Atlanta-based Southern Co., parent of Georgia Power Co. The plants supply about 20 percent of Georgia's electricity.
Other Georgia power plants, transmission lines and pipelines are under heightened security.
Rick Kimble, a spokesman for Southern Nuclear Operating Co., declined to discuss specific measures at the Georgia nuclear plants but said public tours and school visits have been canceled. "We're not allowing anybody on site unless you undergo a background investigation," he said.
Victor Dricks, a spokesman for the NRC in Washington, declined to discuss specific security steps. But measures could include increased patrols, additional security posts and personnel, increased contact with local law enforcement and limited access, he said.
In a false alarm last weekend, an unidentified helicopter flying near two South Carolina nuclear plants triggered dispatch of F-16 fighter jets. Georgia Power Co. owns 50.1 percent of Plant Hatch and 48 percent of Plant Vogtle.
No one knows whether nuclear plants could withstand an attack of the magnitude of the crashes of fuel-laden jetliners that leveled two World Trade Center towers last week. Reactors are encased in domed shells of 4-foot-thick concrete lined with steel and are designed to withstand earthquakes, hurricanes and "airborne objects."
Dricks said it is "unlikely that a large commercial plane would penetrate the containment structure" of a plant. Redundant safety procedures would "limit the consequences of any accident," he added.
But Kimble said the nuclear plants are not designed to withstand acts of war. A spokesman for the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, Austria, said this week that nuclear plants across the world are at risk from airborne suicide attacks.
The NRC said its alert is a precaution. But Dricks said there have been "several dozen" bomb threats and reports of suspicious activity at various facilities. "None have turned out to be credible," he said.
Steve Baker, spokesman for Atlanta-based Colonial Pipeline Co., which operates one of two oil pipelines that cross Georgia, said heightened security is in place along the company's 2,700 miles of Houston-to-New York pipelines.
"We're on our toes to make sure procedures are followed to the letter," said Pat Wente, spokeswoman for the Oklahoma-based Transco pipeline, one of three interstate natural gas pipelines that serve Georgia.