The terror attacks of 9/11 drove home the painful lesson that constant vigil is the price for security.There can be no dispute about what needs to be guarded most closely. Undoubtedly it is the 103 commercial nuclear reactors scattered across the country.The consequences of a successful terror strike on any one of them are simply too horrible to discuss.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is entrusted with the duty of mandating security standards for the nuclear industry.Existing standards were tightened after 9/11 in February 2002.The NRC is now reviewing them before making them permanent. Known as Design Basis Threat (DBT) they're considered 'sensitive' information and not made public.
The industry on its part claims to have spent $1.25 billion on upgrading security since 9/11. They insist they are prepared for any conceivable kind of attack and that they have done more to upgrade their security after 9/11 than the rest of the critical infrastructure of the country.
But what is the real state of affairs? Sample this story.One of the guards at the Peach Bottom nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania found that many of his colleagues were taking regular naps while on duty. The supervisors at his company, Wackenhut Corp. simply ignored his report. The regional office of the NRC closed the mater after the plant's owner Exelon denied that it's guards slept while on duty.So the guard videotaped his sleeping colleagues and gave the tape to WCBS a TV news channel.
The broadcast has had the desired effect. Exelon, the country's largest producer of nuclear power has fired Wackenhut, and the NRC is reviewing its oversight procedures, having ignored the complaint.
Most of the blame has been aimed at Wackenhut which has a history of holes in its security operations as well as labor discontent. The NRC and the plant owner Exelon have also received their share of the blame.The former for not having proper procedures for dealing with such complaints, while the latter has been blamed by Wackenhut for insisting on cost reduction to the point that performance levels were affected.
Wackenhut was founded by a former FBI agent in 1954 in Miami.It is now a 35,000 strong private security firm.Its board has boasted of former heads of the FBI, Secret Service and the Pentagon from time to time.However it has a history of poor relations with its employees, which according to experts, could undermine security procedures.It reportedly has little regard for the welfare of its workforce.In the past it has been found to have misled the government about worker training. Once, while hired by the NRC to carry out a mock attack on a nuclear facility, the attacking unit tipped off another Wackenhut unit guarding that unit about the attack strategy so that they could pass the test.Maybe it would be wiser to hand over the security of these plants to the military.