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The operators of a Pennsylvania nuclear power plant have been fined $65,000 after a federal commission learned several security guards at the facility were sleeping while on duty.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) leveled the penalty against Chicago-based Exelon Nuclear after an investigation found "multiple occasions during which multiple guards were inattentive" at the Peach Bottom plant outside of Philadelphia.
I always love articles like this; it illustrates how difficult it is to get any real facts from the MSM. They couldn’t even get Defense In Depth (DID) correct. They kept calling it “Defense and Depth”. And the ravings of the so called “watchdog” activist just put it over the top.
Reading through the actual finding posted on the NRC Website:
NRC: News Release - Region I - 2009-001 - NRC Proposes $65,000 Fine for Violations Associated with Inattentive Security Guards at Peach Bottom Nuclear Plant (http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/news/2009/09-001.i.html - broken link)
It’s clear the incident was thoroughly investigated. It wasn’t a case of security officers sleeping on watch at their duty stations or on roving patrols, but people being inattentive in the “ready” room which is really a break room. Of course we don’t know the exact security plan of the station but it’s likely the no sleeping policy is more akin to an administrative requirement in the DID procedure, rather than an actual security measure. The article conveniently left out the part of the finding by the NRC stating: “However, the NRC determined that the plant’s security program was not significantly degraded.” Heck, we even let Firemen sleep on duty at the Firehouse and they are expected to be ready for duty on moment’s notice as well.
As for the finding, the Level III Notice of Violation (NOV) was issued to the private Security Company, the Utility (Exelon) was issued a White finding (low to moderate safety significance).
NRC inspectors are no slouches, and this finding was issued even after an Augmented Inspection Team (AIT) was sent in to investigate. I will gladly defer to their judgment over the babblings of some demented activist at some NIMBY Watchdog Group who has probably never set foot inside of a nuclear facility.
$65K? is that all? I hope the also shook a finger at them
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