US Regulators Publish Details Of Annual Security Inspections
Written by NucNet
Monday, 13 July 2009
The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) carried out 182 security inspections at the country’s nuclear power plants and certain fuel cycle facilities with spent nuclear material in 2008, according to the agency’s annual security inspection report to Congress.
The NRC published an unclassified version of its annual report on 10 July 2009 outlining the previous year’s security inspection programme.
According to the report, 24 of the security inspections were ‘force-on-force inspections’, which use a well-trained mock adversary force to test a facility’s ability to respond to threats.
The security inspections identified a total of 133 findings, of which 125 were of very low security significance and eight were of low-to-moderate security significance. All were corrected immediately or compensatory measures put in place, if necessary, the NRC said.
The report also contains information on “programmatic improvements” made as a result of a videotape of sleeping security officers at the Peach Bottom nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania.
In September 2007, the NRC conducted a review at the two-unit Peach Bottom plant after it saw video recordings of security guards who appeared to be inattentive while on duty. The commission also carried out a follow-up review in November 2007.
In January 2009, the NRC proposed a 65,000 US dollar (47,000 euro) fine for Exelon Nuclear for issues associated with inattentive security officers at Peach Bottom.
Details of the findings are considered sensitive and not released to the public. However, the public version of the report is on the NRC’s website.
