San Onofre Security Plan Gone; Theft Not Suspected

A copy of the San Onofre nuclear power plant’s security plan is missing, but plant officials believe it may have been thrown away by mistake.

The document, one of 60 copies, has been missing at least since Oct. 14, when a worker in the plant’s security office could not find it in a file drawer where it is normally kept. The employee had left it in the drawer four days earlier, said David Barron, spokesman for Southern California Edison, the plant’s operator.

Barron said the security plan describes possible threats against the seaside plant’s three reactors and outlines how security workers and law enforcement agents would defend against them. But he said the plan is not so detailed that it breaches plant security.

“We don’t believe it contains any information that would jeopardize security,” Barron said. “The security actions we take are not based upon secrecy.”

Still, Barron said, the plan is considered a “safeguarded” document by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

“It is not for public dissemination,” Barron said. “There are a limited number of copies only for those people who need to see it.”

Barron said the two-inch thick document is often consulted by workers before a design or policy change to ensure that such changes do not violate security.

Barron said Edison officials have no reason to believe foul play was involved in the disappearance.

He said officials believe it may have been thrown away. He said the file cabinet is locked each night but is open during the working day.

“We don’t have any evidence it was stolen,” Barron said. “There was no forced entry into the cabinet.”