Reports of sleeping guards at Pennsylvania’s Peach Bottom nuclear power plant have raised security concerns (U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission photo). Guards Found Sleeping at U.S. Nuclear Power Plant A guard at a Pennsylvania nuclear power plant videotaped other security personnel as they slept on the job last year, the Washington Post reported today (see GSN, Sept. 26, 2007). A CBS affiliate in New York City later aired the videotape, which showed Wackenhut Corp. security guards asleep against walls or hunched over tables at the Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station in York County...Full Story

U.S. Received Nuclear List, North Korea Says North Korea said today that it provided the United States with a list of its nuclear programs in November, disputing claims that it has missed the Dec. 31 deadline, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Jan. 3)...Full Story

Airplane Passengers Exposed to Tuberculosis Forty-four airline passengers might have been exposed to a strain of drug-resistant tuberculosis carried by a woman traveling from India to the United States last month, the Los Angeles Times reported yesterday (see GSN, Nov. 14, 2007)...Full Story

	Friday, January 4, 2008

U.S. Lashes Colorado on Homeland Security Spending Federal auditors have determined that officials in Colorado did not sufficiently scrutinize the use of $156 million in homeland security grants, creating new uncertainties about the state’s readiness to respond to terrorist attacks and other emergencies, the Denver Post reported yesterday (see GSN, Aug. 17, 2007). An audit by the U.S. Homeland Security Department inspector general noted the persistence of “a significant leadership and oversight void” in the period examined, rendering the state’s homeland security planning efforts “ineffective.” Colorado’s Senior Advisory Committee, which is responsible for managing federal assistance for the state’s homeland security program, did not conduct regular meetings, failed to review federal grant applications and did not carry out formal reviews of applications from state contractors for the federal dollars. State officials overtly misspent at least $7.8 million of the federal funds, directing $3.9 million meant for a radio system to a nonprofit organization that supports state communications. Officials also moved more than $3 million in funds between grant programs without first receiving written permission, according to the report by the office of Inspector General Richard Skinner. The report also faults local districts for spending funds without consulting with each other or state officials, recommending that local and federal officials collaborate closely to update Colorado’s emergency response plans. Some state officials defended their actions.  Mike Beasley, who headed Colorado’s Local Affairs Department during the term of former Governor Bill Owens, called working with the Homeland Security Department “the most frustrating experience I have ever had being around government,” arguing that frequent changes to federal procedures placed unfair pressure on local officials directing security efforts. “Personally, I'd rather have a root canal than go back and have anything to do with the Department of Homeland Security,” he said.  “There isn't a state in the nation that isn’t experiencing the same situation that we are in Colorado. … I think it is unfair for them, four years later, to come in and restate the rules.” Governor Bill Ritter said he has been examining “well-documented deficiencies” in Colorado’s use of homeland security grant funds since before he entered office last year. “I'm confident in the progress we are making to restructure the organization, tighten up the oversight and administration of grant funds and improve training,” Ritter said in a statement. Maj. Mason Whitney of the Colorado National Guard, who heads homeland security under Ritter’s administration, said that misuse of the funds has not endangered Colorado’s residents. “I don't think there is cause for concern,” he said.  “But I do want to make sure that everybody understands there needs to be a culture of preparedness and a culture of awareness” (George Merritt, Denver Post, Jan. 3). Back to top

U.S., Libya Establish More Diplomatic Ties The United States and Libya yesterday signed a science and technology cooperation agreement, a move reflecting the two nations’ growing ties following Tripoli’s 2003 decision to abandon its WMD programs (see GSN, Jan. 3). The deal serves as “an important step in recognizing Libya’s historic renunciation of weapons of mass destruction and positive re-engagement with the international community,” a U.S. statement says. The deal “is designed to support government-to-government exchanges, scientific partnerships between private, academic, and nongovernmental entities, and the establishment of science-based industries and promotion of jobs,” according to the statement (U.S. State Department release, Jan. 3). The agreement was signed during a historic visit to Washington by Libyan Foreign Minister Abdelrahman Shalgham, who met with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in the first meeting of the two nations’ foreign ministers in 36 years, Agence France-Presse reported. “Libya needs education, universities, rehabilitation of our infrastructure,” Shalgham said at the signing ceremony.  “That is the real weapon for any nation” (Lachlan Carmichael, Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, Jan. 3). Meanwhile, Libya has been cooperating with the United States somewhat less in the U.N. Security Council, where the nation assumed a two-year seat last year (see GSN, Oct. 17, 2007).  By alphabetical virtue, Libya has also assumed the rotating presidency of the council. The nation’s U.N. ambassador, Giadalla Ettalhi, suggested yesterday that he would have trouble supporting a U.S. push to impose additional council sanctions on Iran, a strategy Washington has pursued in an effort to persuade Tehran to curb its uranium enrichment activities (see GSN, Dec. 21, 2007). “As a country that has suffered from sanctions we would definitely be in a difficult position when sanctions are proposed,” Ettalhi told a news conference.  Nevertheless, Libya “will try to be constructive,” he said (Louis Charbonneau, Reuters, Jan. 3). Back to top

Guards Found Sleeping at U.S. Nuclear Power Plant A guard at a Pennsylvania nuclear power plant videotaped other security personnel as they slept on the job last year, the Washington Post reported today (see GSN, Sept. 26, 2007). A CBS affiliate in New York City later aired the videotape, which showed Wackenhut Corp. security guards asleep against walls or hunched over tables at the Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station in York County. The incident drew renewed attention to security problems connected to Wackenhut, which at the time the videotape was taken provided security for 31 of the 62 U.S. commercial nuclear power facilities (see GSN, Aug. 14, 2006).  Leading nuclear power provider Exelon subsequently terminated the firm’s contracts at Peach Bottom and nine other power plants. “In the past, the standards were not our standards,” said Craig Nesbit, Exelon vice president of communications.  “They were Wackenhut standards, and that’s not what we want, and we’re going to fix that.” “We had some difficulties with them from time to time,” added Exelon chief executive John Rowe.  “We felt the incident with the guards was the last straw.” Along with power plant security, Wackenhut provides protective services at U.S. nuclear weapons sites.  The firm has been cited on several occasions by Energy Department Inspector General Gregory Friedman. Friedman found that a Wackenhut worker in 2003 carried three handguns into the Nevada Test Site.  Security workers at the Oak Ridge site in Tennessee were required to work more than the 60-hour limit, according to a 2005 IG report.  A Wackenhut unit preparing to conduct a mock attack on the Y-12 facility in Tennessee provided information on the plan to the company’s security team there, Friedman reported. “We did not use the word ‘cheating’ in the report, but it was,” Friedman told lawmakers last summer.  “The test was compromised.” National Nuclear Security Administration officials said the cheating claim was an exaggeration, the Post reported. Poor relations with its employees also could undermine the company’s ability to provide adequate security, experts say. Wackenhut in June received $549 million in contracts to provide security at Y-12 and the Oak Ridge facility for the next five years.  The Energy Department, though, “is considering doing a feasibility study of federalizing the guard force at Y-12,” according to a spokeswoman for Friedman. The problem does not lie solely with one entity.  The Nuclear Regulatory Commission failed to “connect the dots” between the sleeping guards at Peach Bottom and other complaints made against Wackenhut, said David Lochbaum, a nuclear safety expert at the Union of Concerned Scientists. The agency is reviewing its procedures regarding handling of complaints of wrongdoing.  “More than anything else, we have to change the way the NRC responds to these allegations,” said commission member Gregory Jaczko. Wackenhut nuclear security operations chief Eric Wilson in a presentation last year said that “we are now ‘down to the bone’” due to efforts by nuclear plant operators to reduce costs.  “The current business model does not yield consistently acceptable performance levels,” Wilson said. Wilson has made several proposals intended to overcome problems at Wackenhut, including increased training and retraining programs. “Eric has good ideas and comes across as sincere in wanting to implement them,” Lochbaum said.  “I’m not sure he will have the time he needs to make it happen.  Because Wackenhut treated its guards so badly for so long, many have lost trust in the company and view Eric’s talk as just that” (Steven Mufson, Washington Post, Jan. 4). Back to top       U.S. Received Nuclear List, North Korea Says North Korea said today that it provided the United States with a list of its nuclear programs in November, disputing claims that it has missed the Dec. 31 deadline, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Jan. 3). “As far as the nuclear declaration on which wrong opinion is being built up by some quarters is concerned, (North Korea) has done what it should do,” the Foreign Ministry said in a prepared statement. The United States has yet to receive the complete nuclear list promised by Pyongyang, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said. “They’re engaging the international media, in their own way,”  he said.  “It is an important point that in one of this have any of the parties been backing away at all from their commitment to the process.” Pyongyang in October pledged by the end of the year to release a full declaration of its nuclear programs and to disable three key facilities at the Yongbyon nuclear complex.  Officials from other nations in the six-party talks — China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States — said neither project was finished by the time Jan. 1 arrived. The other nations have not met their obligations under the continuing denuclearization process, Pyongyang said, including providing energy assistance and taking North Korea off U.S. terrorism sponsorship and sanctions lists.  In response, North Korea had to “adjust the tempo of the disablement of some nuclear facilities on the principle of action for action,” according to the statement. Disablement is expected to be complete within 100 days, after spent fuel rods are removed from North Korea’s only operational nuclear reactor, the Foreign Ministry said. The statement also addressed a main sticking point for the declaration — U.S. suspicions that North Korea has operated a uranium enrichment program alongside its known plutonium activities.  Pyongyang provided the United States with samples of aluminum tubing to prove “they had nothing to do with the uranium enrichment” and has allowed U.S. officials to see military sites that employ the tubes, according to the Foreign Ministry (see GSN, Dec. 21, 2007). McCormack declined to discuss the uranium claim, AP reported. Addressing reports that North Korea was helping Syria build a suspected nuclear facility destroyed in a September Israeli air raid, the statement said the Stalinist state had agreed in October that it would not export nuclear material, equipment or expertise (see GSN, Oct. 10, 2007). The denuclearization plan can move ahead, Pyongyang said, “should all participating nations make concerted sincere efforts on the principle of simultaneous action” (Jae-Soon Chang, Associated Press I/Yahoo!News, Jan. 4). North Korea also today threatened to boost its “war deterrent,” a term referring to its nuclear arsenal, AP reported. “Our republic will continue to harden its war deterrent in response to the U.S. stepping up its nuclear war moves,” the official Rodong Sinmun newspaper said in a commentary (Jae-Soon Chang, Associated Press II/Washington Post, Jan. 4). The U.S. State Department indicated yesterday that it was still waiting for the North Korean nuclear declaration, Agence France-Presse reported.  The list should be submitted “as soon as possible but also they should not sacrifice completeness for speed, completeness and accuracy for speed,” said spokesman Sean McCormack. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill is scheduled to visit Japan, South Korea, China and Russia next week for talks on the North Korea nuclear issue.  The top U.S. envoy to the six-party talks is not expected to travel to North Korea or to meet with North Korean officials, McCormack said (Agence France-Presse/Spacewar.com, Jan. 3). Back to top       Pakistani Nukes Safe, Musharraf Says Terrorists have no chance of commandeering Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal and the country remains safe from takeover by political extremists, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said yesterday (see GSN, Jan. 2). Musharraf told reporters that the heightened turmoil in Pakistan following the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto poses no threat to the nation’s nuclear weapons, the Press Trust of India reported. “There is no possibility of extremists coming into government in Pakistan and therefore taking over the (nuclear) assets … through the political or the democratic system,” he said, adding that no threat to Pakistan’s nuclear weapons exists  “from terrorists and extremists.” “We guard our strategic and nuclear assets very zealously.  We cannot accept any kind of threat to them at all,” Musharraf said, stating that Pakistan’s government maintains “excellent custodial control” over its nuclear stockpile that is “as good as any other nuclear country.” Musharraf also denied claims that al-Qaeda is gaining power in Pakistan, expanding its power from the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan into the Northwest Frontier Province and beyond.  “Taliban is the main concern that we need to tackle more effectively,” he said (Press Trust of India/Times of India, Jan. 3). Back to top       Iranians Could Be Barred From Dutch Nuclear Courses The Netherlands is considering barring Iranian students from attending the nation’s higher education courses that cover nuclear technology, the Xinhua News Agency reported today (see GSN, May 1, 2006). The Education Ministry in September issued a letter warning Dutch colleges, universities and research sites against passing on nuclear technology information to Iranian students.  The agency is now in talks with the Foreign and Justice ministries and the immigration service on an outright ban on nuclear studies by Iranians, according to Dutch media (Xinhua News Agency, Jan. 4). The University of Twente in the town of Enschede does not plan to admit any additional Iranian students, Radio Netherlands reported yesterday.  The decision is in keeping with a 2006 U.N. resolution that urged member nations to withhold their nuclear know-how from Iran. The U.N. Security Council has twice demanded that Iran halt its uranium enrichment activities.  The nation has rejected both resolutions, saying its program is intended solely for energy production and is legal under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Twente officials said they could not be sure that Iranian students would be blocked from gaining any nuclear knowledge if they attended the university.  They chose instead to prohibit admission by all Iranians and has already rejected three students.  The university plans to allow Iranian students already in attendance to finish their schooling. No other Dutch universities have taken measures as strict as those instituted at Twente (Ruben Temming, Radio Netherlands, Jan. 3). Back to top       U.S. Seeks Fine for Plutonium Mishaps at Lab The U.S. Energy Department yesterday proposed fining the Battelle Memorial Institute nearly $300,000 for safety lapses in handling plutonium at a national nuclear laboratory in Richland, Wash., the Associated Press reported.  Battelle, however, would not need to pay the fine because it is exempt under U.S. law (see GSN, Oct. 26, 2007). The recommended penalty followed two incidents since December 2006 in which workers at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory were exposed to plutonium because of faulty safety systems.  Battelle has been the laboratory’s manager since the facility opened in 1965 and is seeking to retain the contract as part of a team that includes the University of Washington and Washington State University. “Our performance certainly wasn't adequate here. We failed to live up to our own expectations and values,” said laboratory spokesman Greg Koller.  “But, that said, we did mount a comprehensive response to these events, and we're committed strongly to implementing the corrective actions that were identified in all of this” (Shannon Dininny, Associated Press/Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Jan. 3). The $288,750 proposed fine could have been larger, according to an Energy Department statement, but the amount reflects the “corrective actions” subsequently taken by Battelle. In any case, the contractor would not need to pay the fine, because nonprofit institutions with Energy Department contracts, such as Battelle, are exempt from penalties if their contracts were completed before 2005, according to the department statement (U.S. Energy Department release, Jan. 3). Back to top

Airplane Passengers Exposed to Tuberculosis Forty-four airline passengers might have been exposed to a strain of drug-resistant tuberculosis carried by a woman traveling from India to the United States last month, the Los Angeles Times reported yesterday (see GSN, Nov. 14, 2007). While there was no indication of the incident being anything but an accidental  health threat, U.S. officials have conducted drills to plan for the possibility of terrorists spreading contagious diseases on commercial airlines (see GSN, Jan. 18, 2005). In response to last month’s incident, public health officials have begun a nationwide search for passengers who took American Airlines Flight 293 from New Delhi to Chicago on Dec. 13.  Although the infected woman took two flights, officials are focusing on the 16-hour overseas trip because the disease is most likely to be transmitted during exposures of more than eight hours. Officials have not identified the woman, a 30-year-old Sunnyvale, Calif., resident infected with multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis.  The woman was diagnosed on Dec. 19, when she went to the Stanford Hospital emergency room in Palo Alto, Calif., said Joy Alexiou, a spokeswoman for the Public Health Department in Santa Clara County. Although the strain is less dangerous than a nearly untreatable form of the disease referred to as extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis, officials are concerned that symptoms the woman showed on the flight increased the likelihood of transmitting the disease. “Coughing, fever, that kind of stuff,” Alexiou said. “So she potentially could have infected someone.”  Alexiou said it remains unclear whether the woman was aware of the tuberculosis infection and the risk of transmitting it at the time she took the flight. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said flight passengers who sat in the same row as the woman or within two rows of her on either side should be immediately tested for tuberculosis infection.  As the disease can develop slowly, CDC officials also asked the passengers to receive a second test between eight and 10 weeks after the first examination. So far, officials have located two California residents who sat near the woman and neither is showing signs of infection, Alexiou said. Stanford Hospital has contacted several people who were in the emergency room with the woman, and Santa Clara County officials have notified members of the woman’s family who might have been infected. The infected woman has remained in isolation at the hospital and is expected to remain there for several more weeks, said Shelley Hebert, the hospital’s executive public affairs director (Jia-Rui Chong, Los Angeles Times, Jan. 3). Back to top

Polish, Czech Leaders to Discuss Missile Shield Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk plans to meet in Prague with Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek on Jan. 10 to discuss missile defenses the United States hopes to deploy in the two countries, the Xinhua News Agency reported (see GSN, Jan. 3). The leaders are likely to coordinate their positions on the proposed missile interceptor and radar installations, the Czech News Agency reported. Tusk last month demanded a “100 percent” guarantee that the U.S. interceptors would benefit Poland’s national security as a precondition for allowing them to be deployed there (Xinhua News Agency, Jan. 3). Back to top       U.S. Contractor Prepares Missile Defense Laser Northrop Grumman Corp. announced yesterday that it had taken important steps toward installing a missile defense laser on an aircraft (see GSN, Sept. 5, 2007). By refurbishing components of the Chemical Oxygen Iodine Laser and finishing inspection of the parts, the U.S. defense contractor took a step toward completing the U.S. Airborne Laser, a project to equip a Boeing 747 with a laser capable of destroying an enemy missile during its boost phase. Reassembly of the megawatt-class laser, now under way at Edwards Air Force Base in California, is expected to continue this year.  Following ground and flight testing, the laser is expected to be tested against a ballistic missile target in 2009. The company collaborated with Boeing Corp., the Airborne Laser program’s primary contractor, to complete engineering drawings for installing the laser on an aircraft. “These achievements represent outstanding progress toward providing our nation with a mobile, speed-of-light capability to attack ballistic missiles during their boost phase,” said Alexis Livanos, a vice president for Northrop Grumman and head of the company’s Space Technology division, in a press release (Northrop Grumman release, Jan. 3). Back to top

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