"Beaver Valley nuclear power plant may have failed part of an April federal safety drill in which mock intruders attack the plant, federal regulators and the plant owners said on Monday."
"The Nuclear Regulatory Commission spotted a problem during the 'force-on-force' test, in which plant security and staged saboteurs battle with laser guns and other simulated weapons, according to plant owner FirstEnergy Corp. and the Union of Concerned Scientists.
The commission has not made a final ruling on how severe the problem was, but plant officials corrected it before the inspectors left, according to the commission.
Its spokesman and a spokeswoman at FirstEnergy, Pennsylvania's largest electricity provider, declined to detail the issue. The company claims the plant's problem may have been the way it conducted the exercise, and not an actual security failure. It has asked to appeal any finding that the problem went beyond the lowest level of severity, spokeswoman Jennifer Young said from the company's Akron headquarters."
Timothy Puko reports for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review August 27, 2013.
SEE ALSO:
Editorial: "The Nuclear Energy Industry Has To Beef Up Security Against Possible Terrorist Attack" (Cleveland Plain Dealer)
"FirstEnergy's Nuclear Security An Issue in An NRC Closed-Door Meeting" (Cleveland Plain Dealer)
"U.S. Nuclear Power Plants Vulnerable To 9/11-Style Attacks: Report" (Reuters)
"Study: All 107 U.S. Nuclear Reactors Vulnerable To Terrorists" (CBS News)
"Protecting U.S. Nuclear Facilities from Terrorist Attack: Re-assessing
the Current “Design Basis Threat” Approach" (Univ. of Texas)
"Are U.S. Nuclear Reactors Adequately Protected Against Credible Terrorist Attacks?" (Univ. of Texas Press Release of August 15, 2013)
"Anyone Can Write A Story About Nuclear Terrorism" (Forbes)
