RALEIGH -- One of the nation's top nuclear regulators said Friday that the country's 64 nuclear plants are safe from terrorist attack.
The comments by Commissioner Dale Klein of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission fly in the face of allegations by nuclear opponents that nuclear plants are sitting ducks for terrorist operatives. Klein, speaking in Raleigh at the Summit on the National Academy of Engineering, urged against requiring further security measures at nuclear plants.
"Even before the terrorist attacks, nuclear power plants and other nuclear facilities were some of the most fortified civilian facilities in the country," Klein said. "In most instances, the U.S. nuclear industry has reached a level of security such that additional requirements would not substantially improve overall security."
The nearest nuclear plant is the Shearon Harris facility, about 25 miles southwest of Raleigh. The plant has one reactor and has operated since 1986. Progress Energy, the plant's operator, has applied to the NRC for federal licenses to add two reactors to the site.
Nuclear critics have unsuccessfully attempted to use the potential of terrorist threats to block attempts by Progress Energy and other power companies to extend nuclear plant licenses and obtain licenses for new reactors.
"It's that kind of complacent attitude that's the biggest threat," said Edwin Lyman, senior staff scientists at the Union of Concerned Scientists, a nuclear watchdog organization. "We know there's still an active threat against U.S. infrastructure."
Details on nuclear plant safety have been classified since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Nuclear plants were required to upgrade security measures, and the plants are patrolled by paramilitary guards. The NRC has carried out mock invasions of nuclear plants in force-on-force exercises to train armed guards and spot weaknesses in the plants' defenses.
Klein is the former chairman of the NRC and also worked for five years at the Pentagon as assistant to the secretary of defense for Nuclear, Chemical and Biological Defense Programs.
Klein said the NRC is under continued pressure to reduce the security risks at nuclear plants. But at least one security upgrade at the plants has backfired, he said.
After 9/11 nuclear plants were required to install bullet-proof enclosures as fighting positions to repel an attack inside the plant. Klein blamed the enclosures for guards falling asleep on the job.
"Let's be honest," Klein said. "If you were isolated in a small room with little ventilation and only small slits to use to view the outside world, you would likely grow bored and inattentive, too."
Two electric utilities were fined in recent years after NRC investigations found that guards napped on the job.
The NRC also investigated similar allegations at the Shearon Harris nuclear plant in 2007 but did not substantiate the claims.
Progress spokesman Mike Hughes said the company takes measures to make sure guards remain alert.
Hughes said the guards are rotated and receive radio calls. The guards also wear motion sensors that sound an alert if they remain motionless for a certain period of time.
