[NukeNet] Sleeping guards at nukes

[Mike Ewall]

http://www.pottstownmercury.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17000978&BRD=1674&PAG=461&dept_id=18041&rfi=6

Security firm has had problems with sleeping guards
Evan Brandt, ebrandt at pottsmerc.com
08/03/2006

LIMERICK -- The disciplining of a security guard at the area's 
nuclear power plant last week was not the first time the company that 
provides security there has dealt with a sleeping guard problem.

On July 26, Exelon Nuclear, which owns and operates the Limerick 
Generating Station, announced a guard had been relieved from duty 
after she had been found to be "inattentive" the day before.

Exelon spokeswoman Beth Rapczynski confirmed the guard had been found 
sleeping and said this week that the guard is no longer in the employ 
of Wackenhut, which conducted the investigation of the incident and 
disciplined the guard.

Wackenhut is a Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.-based security company with a 
division that specializes in nuclear power plant security and 
provides security at 30 plants across the nation, including all 
Exelon's nuclear plants.

As such, Wackenhut's Nuclear Services Division provides security at 
Three Mile Island, which earlier this year was at the center of a 
series of news reports regarding sleeping guards.

According to stories in The Patriot-News of Harrisburg, a total of 
five incidents of employees sleeping, including a supervisor in the 
control room, were investigated at Three Mile Island during a two-year period.

In each case, as occurred at Limerick, the sleeping personnel were 
reported by other workers at the plant.

In January of this year, The Patriot-News reported that an Oct. 17, 
2005, memo sent to security supervisors from Wackenhut's head of 
security at Three Mile Island complained that veteran guards at the 
plant were "informing new hires of all the locations that they can 
hide and catch a quick nap."

The newspaper also reported that sources had said the 
"inattentiveness could be linked to two factors -- long hours and boredom."

Documents cited by the newspaper showed at least one officer had 
worked at Three Mile Island for 150 hours in a 14-day period.

Seventy-eight workers at Three Mile Island filed a federal lawsuit 
against Wackenhut in January, alleging that for more than two years, 
the company had failed to pay them for overtime and other time owed them.

By the end of February, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission had begun 
an investigation into the sleeping incidents at Three Mile Island, 
but in March, NRC officials refused to release the results, citing 
the need to protect security procedures.

The state got into the act in March when the Pennsylvania Department 
of Environmental Protection began a series of twice monthly surprise 
inspections at the commonwealth's five nuclear plants. No incidents 
of "inattentiveness" were found in March.

The attentiveness of guards at nuclear plants, and the hours they 
work, is a national issue as far as the Project for Government 
Oversight is concerned.

The Washington, D.C. watchdog group told the Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission as recently as December that the new work rules for 
nuclear plant security guards being considered by the NRC are worrisome.

It warned that the NRC's consideration of using calculations of 
"group hours" as a way of monitoring how long guards work and 
allowing them to "self declare that they are too fatigued to work" 
could lead to problems.

The group said it had found examples of guards who declare themselves 
too tired to work being fired, thus discouraging guards from pulling 
themselves from duty when they're too tired.

Also, allowing "group hours" could lead to nuclear plant operators 
being "able to fudge how many armed security officers they have on 
shift by sneaking the unarmed officers, trainers, and, in some cases, 
clerical and managerial staff into the group with the armed 
responders. So, in their reporting, the utility can state that the 
group did not work more than 48 hours on average, when a number of 
individual armed officers may have worked more than 72 hours," 
according to a letter sent to the NRC chairman.

The Project on Government Oversight also informed NRC that its 
investigation at Beaver Valley Nuclear Plant in Pennsylvania 
indicated a "high percentage" of security officers "worked between 60 
and 72 hours per week."

None of these issues have been alleged at the Limerick plant, and 
Rapczynski said of the sleeping guard: "We believe it was an isolated 
incident."

A call seeking comment made late Wednesday to Marc Shapiro, senior 
vice president at Wackenhut, was not immediately returned.

The corporate Web site described the Wackenhut Corp. as "the 
U.S.-based division of Group 4 Securicor, the world's second largest 
provider of security services."

The company is based in England, has activities in more than 100 
countries and has more than 38,000 employees.

According to its Web site, the company's "Nuclear Services Division 
brings to the field of nuclear security an extraordinary reservoir of 
knowledge and expertise; it brings a firm corporate commitment; and 
it brings established standards of professionalism, integrity and 
quality service."

Until recently, another division of Wackenhut provided security at 
the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in Washington, D.C., but the 
contract was not extended after security lapses there were 
highlighted, Congressional Quarterly reported.


©The Mercury 2006