March 29, 2002
Editorial

Charlotte Observer

Nuclear plant security

News reports about regulation of security at American nuclear power plants have this in common: All of them are alarming. Here's the latest.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission does not keep track of the number of foreign nationals working at nuclear plants. It does not know how many guards are employed at plants or what plant owners spend on security. And while nuclear plant employees are checked by the FBI, criminal records in other countries can be difficult to find.

The information was provided in response to queries from Massachusetts Rep. Edward J. Markey. He has long been critical of the industry and the NRC. He is sponsoring a bill under which the federal government would take over security at reactors -- two of which closely neighbor Charlotte -- much as airport security has been federalized.

Federalizing nuclear plant security would not guarantee its quality, of course. And some of Rep. Markey's notions do seem extreme, as in his proposal to put anti-aircraft weapons at reactor sites.

Still, he has a point when he says the above list of what the NRC simply doesn't know is a danger signal. He has another when he says that regulators have long been inattentive to logical questions about the vulnerability of reactors to wrongdoing.

In one example, they simply ducked the question in comments on the licensing of a facility to make plutonium fuel. An environmental group had asked that impact statements include an assessment of the risk of terrorism. NRC staff said the group hadn't established terrorist threats fell "within the realm of reasonably foreseeable events."

They issued this statement the day after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Also since Sept., 11, the commission has suspended exercises in which mock commandos test defenses. It says that in the current environment of "elevated threat," such tests would pose safety hazards to nuclear employees and "negatively impact security effectiveness."

Rep. Markey doesn't understand the logic of that, and neither do we. He says he'll release 100 pages of details Monday. We'll bet they make an interesting read, but not a comforting one.