Word: terrorists
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...been nearly four years since 9/11 awakened the country to the possibility that nuclear power plants might be the next big target for the U.S.'s terrorist enemies. The country's reactors--deployed, as so many of them are, in areas with large civilian populations--have the potential to be weapons of mass destruction. The plants may be especially attractive to al-Qaeda because of the group's fondness for launching attacks that are increasingly spectacular. The vulnerability of the U.S. to terrorism was underscored when members of the 9/11 commission, formally disbanded last summer, resumed work as a nonprofit...
...relatively small arsenal that the NRC gives the "attackers" in its drills doesn't impress Representative Christopher Shays, a Connecticut Republican. The DBT attack force is barred from using many of the weapons detailed in the opening scenario of this story, but, says the Congressman, "if I were a terrorist, I'd feel more than free to use them." The agency doesn't require defenses against weapons that terrorists haven't regularly used, according to a senior nuclear-plant safety expert who has worked with the NRC and the nuclear industry for decades. "The NRC's assumption is that...
...Before 9/11, there was "reasonable assurance" that the guard force could defeat the then small DBT, the agency says. In the wake of 9/11, it continues, "the defensive capability of the industry has been significantly enhanced." But the website never answers the question it just posed. Could a 9/11-size terrorist force take down a U.S. nuclear power plant...
...Since the plant's post-9/11 security plan took effect last fall, she tells TIME, there have been 29 in-house classroom exercises--with members of the guard force split into groups of "attackers" and "defenders"--designed to show how well the guards could defend the plant from terrorist attacks. "We won only one out of 29 tabletop drills using the new defensive plan," she says. "The attackers won 28." A senior Wackenhut official, who said "there is no win-lose ratio kept on these types of tabletops," contended that Davidson was fired for poor performance and that Pilgrim...
...part, Diaz insists that the improvements made in the nation's nuclear plants since 9/11 are adequate. They have included adding physical barriers, checking approaching vehicles at greater stand-off distances and improving coordination with local police and military authorities. Says the NRC chief: "Any terrorist who looks at one of these facilities is going to say, 'This is a hardened target, and I'm not going to have any confidence that I am going to be successful [attacking it].'" Plants have also improved training for guards and capped their workweeks at 72 hours to eliminate the not-uncommon tendency...