Commission has made available to the public an unclassified version of an annual report to Congress outlining the previous year’s security inspection program
- By Linton Levy -
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has made available to the public an unclassified version of an annual report to Congress outlining the previous year’s security inspection program. The report is required under the Energy Policy Act of 2005.
The report covers the NRC’s security inspection program, including force-on-force exercises, for commercial nuclear power reactors and certain nuclear fuel cycle facilities for calendar year 2008.
“It is my pleasure to submit this report to our congressional oversight committees,” NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko said. “At the NRC we take our mission to protect public health and safety very seriously, and we want to share our efforts with the public as much as possible”
According to the report, the NRC conducted 182 security inspections at nuclear power plants and Category I fuel cycle facilities with spent nuclear material in 2008. Of those inspections, 24 were force-on-force inspections, which use a well-trained mock adversary force to test a facility's ability to respond to threats.
The security inspections identified a total of 133 findings, of which 125 were of very low security significance and eight were of low-to-moderate security significance. All were corrected immediately or compensatory measures put in place, if necessary. Details of the findings are considered sensitive and not released to the public.
The report also contains information on programmatic improvements made as a result of a videotape of sleeping security officers at the Peach Bottom nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania, a discussion of corrective actions taken after some force-on-force inspections, and the primary objectives of the Category 1 security oversight program.
Editor's Note: The public version of the report can be opened by clicking the attachment below.