By George Lobsenz
While saying its inspections last year found security remained sound at U.S. nuclear power plants and fuel facilities, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has cited one nuclear plant for “moderate degradation” in its security performance in 2008 and revealed that the Nuclear Fuel Services (NFS), the operator of a sensitive nuclear fuel plant in Tennessee, is carrying out “a major program” of security upgrades.
The NRC also told Congress in a report on its 2008 security inspection program that nine other nuclear plants slipped slightly in their security performance last year, resulting in them being placed into the commission’s “regulatory response” category. That means inspections detected at least one “white” security issue, which under the color- coded NRC regulatory oversight system means the issue has “low to moderate” significance for plant protection.
The commission said another 54 plants were in the “licensee response” category, which means inspections discovered only “green” security issues, which have “very low” significance.
The report contained no details about which plants had security issues or what the issues were because the commission does not want to reveal actual or potential vulnerabilities at specific plants that might be exploited by terrorists or other hostile groups.
Overall, the report said NRC conducted 182 security inspections at nuclear power plants and fuel facilities in 2008, including 24 “force-on-force” exercises, which are mock attacks on nuclear facilities staged by a team of security experts posing as terrorists trying to penetrate security to reach sensitive materials or areas of the facility.
Altogether, the NRC inspections cited 133 security issues, including 125 findings that involved issues of very low security significance and eight of low-to-moderate significance.
Among other findings during the force-on-force exercises, NRC cited two findings relating to “the failure of licensee armed security personnel to interpose themselves between the mock adversary and the vital [plant] areas” needing protection.
The commission said that whenever a finding is made in a security inspection, the facility’s operator must take temporary measures to correct the problem–such as the installation of new barriers or deployment of more security guards–before inspection team leaves the site. Those measures must remain in place until the operator implements a permanent solution that meets NRC requirements.
The NRC said the one nuclear plant last year fell into its “degraded cornerstone” category because it had multiple white findings or one yellow finding involving an issue of “substantial” significance to plant security. The commission said the finding meant the plant meant NRC requirements, but “with moderate degradation in security performance.”
In sum, the commission said in its report: “The commission is confident that nuclear power plants and Category I fuel cycle facilities continue to be among the best protected private sector facilities in the nation….”
The report contained no details on security findings at the nation’s two Category I fuel cycle facilities, which contain the most sensitive nuclear materials, such as plutonium and enriched uranium. The two facilities are Babcock & Wilcox‘s Lynchburg, Va., fuel fabrication plant and NFS, an Erwin, Tenn., plant recently bought by Babcock & Wilcox after a string of safety and security issues at the facility.
Both facilities manufacture fuel for nuclear Navy ships and blend down high-enriched uranium from the government’s nuclear weapons program into low-enriched uranium suitable for conversion into commercial reactor fuel.
The NRC report provides no specific findings about the fuel facilities except to say that both significantly upgraded their security after the September 2001 terrorist attacks in New York and at the Pentagon and “NFS is currently implementing a major program of additional security upgrades.”