American nuclear reactors vulnerable to terrorist attacks

[lovuian]

http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/?sid=8a3a636fe5b7cb71


More than four years after Sept. 11, 2001, the 103 civilian nuclear reactors in the United States are still defenseless against direct air attack, and their minimum requirement for ground security has only been upgraded by a single security guard each.

According to new guidelines mandated by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and entered into the Federal Register on Monday, Nov. 7, the 65 nuclear power stations across the United States that house the 103 active civilian nuclear reactors will now be required to have a minimum of five security guards each on regular duty rather than four.

Nor does the NRC appear to require any further upgrading of reactor security as necessary in the foreseeable future.

"All the nuclear power plants are currently meeting the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's requirements in regard to safety," NRC Commissioner Gregory Jaczko told a conference on nuclear power and safety organized by the Nuclear Policy Research Institute at Airlie, Va. Tuesday.

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This is what Homeland Security had done for us NOTHING!!!

[freethought]

1. Gee Mr. Bush, Mr. Chertoff. I feel so much safer!!

NOT! Someone tell me why we produced this Dept. in the first place? Oh yeah, it made the wastrel son look good.

:nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :grr: :grr: :grr:

[ramapo]

2. No kidding

Same for chemical factories...We are a nation of dimwits.

[lovuian]

4. Homeland Security is just a smoke screen!!!

Its like the films we saw in school when a Nuclear Bomb hits get under your desk ...

thats our Nuclear Security for the nation!!!

OMG!!!

[UrbScotty]

3. Sorry, this forum isn't for old news.

If you understand my point.

[lovuian]

6. Your missing the point... Its interesting this comes up on front page

of Big News and how Bush's polls are in the tank...

A bunch of us suspect a Al Quida attack any minute and what a prime target...

here it is on the front page for them... get my drift!!!

[UrbScotty]

8. All I was saying was...

I was just saying that nuclear raeactors' vulnerability to terrorist attack is old news.

[lovuian]

9. You make a great point

:nuke:

[spindrifter]

5. Reactors are not the only area

where Homeland Security has been remiss.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/01/AR2005110101425.html

Just google homeland security + missed deadlines and you will see that during the past couple of months much of the MSM has aired or published something on the issue of missed security plan deadlines. Still, no one is saying jack to call M. Ch*rtoff to task about this.

If you are spending billions on "terra," what about getting something done around home?

[Canuckistanian]

7. I thought reactors were designed to withstand plane crashes

So "air attack" would mean air to ground missiles or bombs?

Rather unlikely, don't you think? And if America's air defenses are that compromised, you got bigger problems that destroyed nuclear reactors.

[truthisfreedom]

10. *shrug* maybe we should just put in anti-aircraft guns on-site?

seems like it might work.

[upi402]

11. No $ available, Haliburton needs another few Billion $

We have made America less safe, yet the corporate media has Americans thinking * is tougher on terra.

[Gyre]

12. I'm sure Cheney's got his favorite picked out already to blow

as soon as he finds an Arab headdress to wear over his sheet for the cameras that will be conveniently located and recovered.

I think * and cheney are cornered rats and they'd give up a million Americans to stay in power. We better be on guard.

Gyre

[Name removed]

13. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Rodger Dodger]

14. Homeland Security : that's a laugh

When it comes to spending money you can count on conservatives to become very creative, using kind euphemisms, when attempting to con the citizens. It's a safe bet they wont spend the necessary money for security.

During the cold war our children were told, that in the case of an atomic attack, they were to move from their class room go into the hallway's sit on the floor with their backs against the wall and put their heads between their knees and the hand over their heads.

I'm sure millions of grownups remember those days. Can you really trust the government to spend any money to protect Joe Six Pack and his family. They build bunkers for themselves: but the citizens are on their own.

Recall how they instructed the adult citizens to avoid harm in the event of an atomic attack? They advised take their families and leave the area as quick quickly as possible. And of course, the FIRST RESPONDERS (they didn't call them that during the cold war) it was the Civil Defense then... well they just stayed and died, while everyone else were attempting to save themselves. No thought given to how their families would be saved.

Do you recall the horrific traffic jammed highways during the last three hurricanes?

It was the foundation for the 50s,60s,70, joke...."I from the government I'm here to help you."

People seemed to have forgotten those days.

[wakeme2008]

15. LOL LBN --- WP: After the Storm, Chertoff Vows to Reshape DHS

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1923070

Secretary Pledges to Learn From Mistakes of Katrina

(snip)

"My style was always very straightforward and very simple. . . . Here's what I know. Here's what I don't know. If I've made a mistake I'll admit it," Chertoff, 51, said in an interview in his spartan offices, barely furnished after eight months on the job. "I will make mistakes, but I aspire not to make the same mistake again."

[Demeter]

16. I'm More Concerned About the Homer Simpsons of the World

the contentedly ignorant, lax, intellectually and morally unfit, and native born.

[lovelaureng]

17. I don't think that anyone is

surprised by this at all. We are still vulnerable and guess what? Nothing is being done about it, not now or in the immediate future. It is one of those things that is considered not so important. Out of sight, out of mind. However, nuclear reactors were not well protected before 9-11, that event was just a serious wake up call regarding the security issues within our country.

[M155Y_A1CH]

18. Loose lips sink ships

Why does this story keep returning to haunt us? Is it some kind of dare to the terrorists? They keep the oddest info secret for their security (* admin) and then blab repeatedly about weakness out here among us.
:boo: I cry foul!