Security forces at U.S. nuclear power plants have not been adequately tested to determine whether they could protect a plant against a terrorist attack, Representative Edward Markey (D-Mass.) said Thursday in a letter to the Washington Post (see GSN, Jan. 23).

Elite military units are not used to simulate a terrorist team during security drills, Markey said in response to an earlier Post letter by John Gordon, director of the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (see GSN, Jan. 25).  Markey added that, according to information he obtained from the Energy Department, the last time an elite unit was used in a plant security drill was in 1998.  Moreover, Navy SEAL teams have said such simulations are too artificial and have refused to participate, Markey said.

Markey also criticized Gordon’s statements that plant security forces are tested to “failure.”  The Energy Department uses guidelines called the Design Basis Threat to determine plant security.  These guidelines do not require that plants be protected from a sophisticated terrorist attack, Markey said.  Since security drills at nuclear plants never exceed the security levels stated in the Design Basis Threat, they are never tested to failure, he said.

“If ‘spin’ were an effective deterrent to terrorism at our nuclear weapons facilities, Mr. Gordon’s confidence might be well placed,” Markey said. “But spin is no substitute for addressing the weaknesses … Mr. Gordon seems determined to learn this the hard way” (Edward Markey, Washington Post, Feb. 28).

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