New Security Rules for Nuclear Plants

The U.S. government Thursday ordered the nation’s 103 nuclear power plants to adopt more rigorous employee screening and guard training as part of an anti-terrorism campaign, but critics said the measures did not go far enough to protect dangerous radioactive material.

The stricter security also means that cars and trucks approaching commercial nuclear plants will be stopped farther away from plant gates for searches, the Nuclear Regulatory Agency said.

As part of the stepped-up security, plant employees will be subject to new restrictions as to where they can go within a facility. There also will be more screening and identification checks for employees and subcontractors visiting plants.

Nuclear safety activists and some Democratic lawmakers have called for National Guard troops or federalized guards to help prevent attacks against the facilities.

They say the plants, even with concrete walls more than 4 feet thick, would be vulnerable to strikes like those on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on Sept. 11 by fuel-laden hijacked jets.

Concerns also have been raised about potential bomb-laden boats because most plants are built near rivers, oceans and lakes for the vast amounts of water needed to cool their reactors. The Coast Guard has imposed nearly 100 off-limit zones near nuclear plants; boaters who enter the areas face fines of $5,000 or more.

The Federal Aviation Administration has banned flights within 12 miles of most such plants.

Nuclear plants, which supply one-fifth of U.S. electricity, long have been required to have armed guards, razor wire or fences and monitoring devices. The plants also are required to hold drills every few years to demonstrate that they can ward off heavily armed paramilitary forces intent on sabotage.

President Bush said last month that diagrams of nuclear power plants were discovered in Al Qaeda hide-outs in Afghanistan.

Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) called the new security measures “too little, too late and too temporary.”

“The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is still operating in a pre-Sept. 11 world,” said Markey, a longtime critic of the nuclear industry. “We know all too well that the terrorists of Al Qaeda have contemplated and would carry out an attack on a nuclear facility.”

The nuclear industry, which opposes federalization of guards, said the new security measures merely fine-tune already elaborate procedures.

Plants in the U.S. employ about 5,000 guards, with an average of 80 per plant, he said.

Nuclear plant guards must pass an FBI background check and psychological tests, then train about 300 hours before beginning work. Each guard receives 30 more hours of training annually.

All 103 U.S. plants went on high alert after the Sept. 11 attacks in New York and near Washington; more than 3,000 people were killed.

Regulators declined to elaborate on the new security measures, saying that details could not be made public. They also insisted that the requirements were not in response to any specific threat against a plant.

“We took steps immediately following the Sept. 11 attacks to raise the security level of all the nuclear plants and have issued more than 20 advisories to the plants since then recommending ways they can further strengthen security,” said Victor Dricks, an agency spokesman.