Nuclear plants need real security

[kristopher]

"Editor's note: Charles S. Faddis is a retired CIA operations officer and the former head of the CIA's unit focused on fighting terrorism involving weapons of mass destruction. The author of "Willful Neglect: The Dangerous Illusion of Homeland Security," Faddis is also president of Orion Strategic Services, a Maryland-based security firm that does consulting work for the Department of Defense and counter-terrorist training for private firms."

...Roughly 18 months ago I started work on a project that ultimately lead to the writing of my recently published book, "Willful Neglect," on homeland security in the United States.

I examined security at a wide range of potential targets inside the United States, including chemical plants, liquefied natural gas facilities, biological research laboratories and nuclear power plants.

This was not a theoretical study. I did my homework up front, but after that, I went out on the street and I did what my 20 years in the CIA had trained me to do. I looked at all these targets in the same way as an adversary would. What I found was deeply disturbing. Eight years after 9/11, we had done little or nothing to enhance security in most areas.

Nuclear power plants were no exception.

Security at nuclear power plants is in the hands of private security companies hired to protect the facilities by the power companies that own them....

http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/03/15/faddis.nuclear.plant.security/


This isn't a reassuring assessment.

[kristopher]

1. "It does not take a counterterrorism expert to imagine what al Qaeda "

"Yemeni security forces recently captured a suspected member of al Qaeda, a New Jersey native named Sharif Mobley. Between 2002 and 2008, he worked at several U.S. nuclear power plants. It does not take a counterterrorism expert to imagine what al Qaeda might be able to do with the knowledge supplied by an individual who had spent the better part of six years inside nuclear facilities.

The stakes here are enormous. A team of terrorists, which was able to seize control of a nuclear power plant, could cause it to melt down with relatively basic knowledge of the plant's operation.

A full-scale meltdown of a major reactor would be catastrophic. Such an incident at the Indian Point Plant in New York state, for instance, would likely render large parts of the metropolitan New York City area uninhabitable for decades and likely kill tens of thousands."
- Charles S. Faddis

[madokie]

2. Only fools would advocate for the use of nuclear energy for anything

Only fools will equate nuclear waste with co2 emissions.
Thats my opinion and I'm sticking with it. :hi:

[kristopher]

3. Well we know the reply to this security review by the nukophiles

The guy obviously hates nuclear power and has an irrational fear of of a perfectly safe and benign technology.

BTW, thought about your recent concerns when I read this:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7935058

[Dogmudgeon]

4. Are you sure you want to "stick with it"?

I know that http://www.snm.org/">at least 15 thousand people would disagree with you on that -- for professional reasons, and entirely without political interest.

Plus, there are several tens of millions of us fools whose lives have been saved and/or improved by their "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_medicine">nuclear anything".

--d!
They X-Ray Horses, Don't They?

[kristopher]

5. Kick

[kristopher]

6. Kick for Friday night reading..