Federal officials will soon order security improvements for U.S. nuclear power plants to better protect against terrorist attacks, a nuclear industry lobbying group said yesterday (see GSN, Feb. 4).

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is expected to tell nuclear plant operators to upgrade security measures related to employees, training and physical barriers around plants, the Nuclear Energy Institute said.  The group added that details of the planned upgrades could not be released because of security reasons.

Representative Edward Markey (D-Mass.), a critic of the nuclear industry, yesterday offered support for the NEI announcement.

“I am surprised to hear about potential upgrades to nuclear reactor security from the nuclear industry rather than from the government agency charged with overseeing it,” Markey said in a statement.

Nuclear safety groups have called on the Bush administration to improve security at nuclear power plants to protect them from terrorist attacks, including those using hijacked aircraft.

“Our sense today is that these plants are sitting ducks,” said Paul Leventhal, president of the Nuclear Control Institute.

Leventhal criticized a nuclear power plant security review being conducted by the NRC, calling it “a topless to bottomless review” and saying that it is “meaningless and infinite in its scope” (Chris Baltimore, Reuters/Forbes.com, Feb. 12).

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