Published: September 13th, 2012 at 6:21 pm ET
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Title: $1.5B lawsuit: Indian Point isn’t secure
Source: The Poughkeepsie Journal
Author: Jonathan Bandler
Date: Sept 13, 2012
[...] “I understand they’re in business to make money … but my job, my concern, my obligation is to defend [Indian Point] facility against radiological sabotage,” [Clifton “Skip” Travis Jr.] said during an interview Wednesday, frequently repeating his belief that a terrorist attack on the plant is inevitable.
“It was never my intention to hurt them. … This is not a vendetta. This is holding them accountable.”The lawsuit paints a doomsday picture of what security lapses could mean to those living in the so-called “meltdown zone.” [...]
50/50 Shot
Travis said that in each of the past two years, the plant’s force-on-force drills — where mock adversaries attack the plant — ended with the “terrorists” taking over their intended targets. And since he was hired, the terrorists have won at least half the time, he said.
One of the times the security force won, he said, was during a “choreographed” drill when Gagnon had the attackers run uphill at fixed positions because it was raining and he wanted to speed up the drill so nobody would get hurt.
Travis contends that company and Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials were so concerned that the plant would fail its triannual drill this year that they canceled it just a few days before it was scheduled in June, citing a “safety concern” that rifles used in the drills were emitting too much carbon dioxide.
Fun & Games
Travis claims that the company encourages security staff to bring laptops so they can watch movies and play video games to keep from falling asleep during their shifts. He said that many staff members routinely remove the batteries from the lights on their weapons so they can use them in their personal electronic equipment and often don’t replace them.
Nation’s Most Secure Plant?
A spokesman for Entergy, Jim Steets, said [...] “both the NRC and an independent review of security and emergency planning experts said Indian Point is safe and secure [...] In fact it may be the most secure nuclear plant in the nation.”
See also: Entergy sued over lax security at NY nuclear plant
Published: September 13th, 2012 at 6:21 pm ET
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sending...
What is the point in this article because I am not hearing it?
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Simply put this insider is whistle blowing about the security staff not being prepared for a terrorist assault on the plant and I commend him for trying to shed some light on the issue and making the public aware.
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"…ended with the “terrorists” taking over their intended targets. And since he was hired, the terrorists have won at least half the time, he said…"
Terrorists 'win' by inciting fear, suspicion and panic in the public. The public has few options but go home, pull all the shades down, turn off all the lights and curl up in a fetal position in front of CNN. After a quick refueling stop at McDonalds, of course.
Apparently what's happening is the NRC and the NEI have been attacking plants and have been *winning* half the time. These terrorist groups produce the desired result: fear and panic in the public. I have a hard time imagining the NRC commissioners waddling up a hill in their cheap suits and mounting an effective attack, but they seem relatively successful. Maybe they throw balls of plutonium at the guards' X-Box, rendering it useless for gaming.
If the terrorists want to see a nuclear plant go up in smoke, they have to do is sit outside the fence with a picnic basket and binoculars and wait. The utility operators' last 40 years of cheap-ass maintenance, low-bid contractors and Chinese parts are bound to produce the produce the desired effect. The only reason they haven't done this yet is because they don't want to get anywhere near them – nuclear plants are terrifying!
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It sounds like security at some facilities, or all of them, is severly lacking and any half-assed group could over run one.
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Licensees usually have to pay for upgrades to the plant, but *this* one, if I remember right, was part of the Homeland Security Bill or some such nonsense. I think all U.S. taxpayers are all paying for these mall cops whether you have nuke plants or not.
Nuclear power is almost free when you leech off of a nation's taxpayers to pick up the extras. Oh, and ignore the hundreds of millions for decomissioning and hiding the spent fuel in a forest somewhere. That's expensive, but that's someone *elses* problem forty years from now. Meltdown? Government (=taxpayers) got your back there, too. Execs all have cushy lobbyist or government jobs lined up. They're not worried.
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Maybe that Clifton better check his brakes and stay away from people with umbrellas.
Actually that is a Putin thing. American nucleocrats don't sweat it. They just do favors for more scientists, politicians, and federal bureaucrats. They might pay a fine. But the government will reimburse them in some appropriate method.
The nucleocrats know they can always produce sufficient disinformation to keep Joe Sixpack and the deacons at the church completely satisfied and believing everything is wonderful.
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SPR, you are informative and I appreciate your posts. Those nucleo Rats probably have a recipe for cesium tea.
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The man was trying to get you to read between the lines…
http://www.ucsusa.org/nuclear_power/nuclear_power_risk/sabotage_and_attacks_on_reactors/impacts-of-a-terrorist-attack.html
http://www.ucsusa.org/nuclear_power/nuclear_power_risk/sabotage_and_attacks_on_reactors/nrcs-revised-security.html
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Nuclear reactors blow up. Caused by operator and mechanical failure (as proven by past and present nuclear disasters). And everyone is downwind. You are downwind. And today for lunch, you had food that contained man-made, man-developed, radiation. It's burning a small hole in your body right now (thanks to the nuclear industry). But this can all go away if we decide to stop using nuclear plants. It's that simple. Seriously.
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Maybe they need to hire the TSA for their security, they do pat downs, and they are allowed to give radiation x-rays?
They say it works for the airports, why not for the nuclear plants? (sarc)
We all know Nuclear plants have been broken into before and that sabotage can happen. There are those who need to have that confirmed by a professional .
We need whistle blowers and it's good that people tell how things are, especially in something this dangerous.
These plants are too dangerous and need to be shut down.
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Atucha Nuclear Reactor Taken Over By Terrorists; via A Green Road
http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2012/04/atucha-nuclear-reactor-taken-over-by.html
12 reasons why all nuclear power plants must be shut down; via A Green Road http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2012/03/12-reasons-why-all-nuclear-power-plants.html
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For me the interesting issues, other than the obvious whistle blowing was:
"Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials were so concerned that the plant would fail its triannual drill this year that they canceled it just a few days before it was scheduled in June, citing a “safety concern” that rifles used in the drills were emitting too much carbon dioxide." portion.
1. I learned that the plant drills, this same drill 3 times a year. I ask myself why a nuclear plant, supposedly full of very intelligent people, that have this same little task to accomplish every 4 months, are incapable of passing the drill. These people were not all hired yesterday.
2. NRC is so concerned that this will make them look bad, that they came up with such a lame excuse as the rifles were emitting too much carbon dioxide??? WTF These are psychopaths, they do not care about carbon dioxide!!! Have they changed the drill to use non carbon dioxide emitting weapons since then? at all plants? again WTF! Remember, the NRC is the side that knows, more than anyone exactly what is really being emitted at the plant and they care about a little carbon dioxide from a gun?? Bet they all drove their hummers there to cancel the drill.
3. The obvious, doesn't drill mean you drill to you get it right?
Again WTF..
Glad he is telling what we already knew, sorry for him and whatever life he had, hope he likes mud.
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“It's almost a mall cop mentality there, and the stakes are huge,” ..For someone who lives everyday thinking he has to protect 20 million people within the 50-mile radius, it causes a lot of stress. The suit is rife with stunning allegations about the culture at the plant …which Travis says is mainly concerned about the almighty dollar.
According to the complaint, security is such a low priority at the plant that nearly half of the lights that illuminate its perimeter don’t work.
Security personnel allegedly sleep on the job, play online video games together, and sell burned DVDs to each other for $3.
A new security system put in place.. ARINCS crashed 14 times the day it went live, and has crashed over 7,800 times in 2012 alone, according to Travis…
“The security program in place is reviewed and evaluated regularly by the (Nuclear Regulatory Commission), and has been evaluated by independent experts to be a safe plan,” the spokesman, Jerry Nappi, added. “The company has spent more than $100 million since Sept. 11, 2001 to enhance security.” (TAX PAYER DOLLARS most likely)
…employees throughout the plant refer to the federal regulator as “NO REAL CONCERNS.”
“It's apathy that rises to criminal level,” Bellantoni said. They’re more concerned about profits than safety and security of facility.”
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/suit-claims-poor-security-indian-point-nuclear-plant-article-1.1158946
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Greenpeace acitivist paraglides into French nuke plant
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/05/02/11504375-greenpeace-bombs-french-nuclear-reactor-could-it-happen-in-us?lite
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Nuclear Power Plant Refueling and Repairs =
Low bid, subcontracted out, unknown, expendable labor force…
The western powers keep pissing on the rest of the world and it's only a mater of time before history records the first one…
Suspected N.J. al-Qaeda terrorist Sharif Mobley worked at nuclear power plants
http://www.newjerseynewsroom.com/state/suspected-nj-al-qaeda-terrorist-sharif-mobley-worked-at-nuclear-power-plants
Sellafield terror arrests prompt London police raids
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/may/03/five-arrested-sellafield-terrorism-act
It is also used as false flag fodder for the herding of the sheep…
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Fukushima should change nuclear security in every nuclear plant. What this accident has shown is the risk is not some crazy guys going into the reactor or refueling floor and stealing or blowing up the fuel. Today that is where the strictest security measures are concentrated. You have to go through card readers, and through posted security guards to get into those areas.
But Fukushima has shown us that terrorists only need to disrupt the power supplied to site, and then take down the diesel generators. We have seen how much destruction can happen when power is lost. Diesels are protected more than other plant systems, but there are ways to interrupt their operation. I will not go into detail,but people could figure it out.
Security is much better than it was 30-40 years ago, but many security personnel are low paid and often temporary. Thirty years ago at San Onofre one of my coworkers stole a forklift and an entire garage full of tools, some of which were contaminated. I once even took a Polaroid of a guard sleeping and put it next to him so he saw it when he woke up.
But seeing what happened at Fukushima should change nuclear security big time.
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