Major Security Breach at Palisades Nuclear Plant

[RestoreGore]

May 15, 2007

Major Security Breach at Palisades Nuclear Plant
Critics Call for U.S. Congressional Investigations

TAKOMA PARK, MD —A story appearing in the June edition of Esquire magazine that reveals a major security lapse at the Palisades nuclear power plant in Covert, Michigan, confirms that reactor security around the country is grossly inadequate according to specialists in the field.

Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS) and its allies today called on the U.S. Congress to investigate the security breach at Palisades. The Esquire story, entitled "Mercenary," details how the head of Palisades security — William E. Clark — had largely fabricated his background, experience and security credentials presenting himself as an expert on armed deterrence. Clark has since resigned his position.

"Mercenary" reveals that officials at the Palisades nuclear power plant failed to detect false assertions in Clark's resume that claimed he had high level security clearance from the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD). Clark also passed a Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)-regulated background check. He was hired by the plant's previous owner, Consumers Energy Company, and operator, Nuclear Management Company, but was kept on by the new owner and operator, Entergy, since it acquired Palisades one month ago. The article can be found at http://www.esquire.com/features/mercenary0607

"What's disturbing is not only that Palisades hired an individual who claimed to be an experienced assassin but that apparently no one verified his claim to have DOD clearance," said Kevin Kamps, nuclear waste specialist at NIRS. "This has serious implications for security at all 103 reactors across the country. It begs the question as to what would have happened if Mohammed Atta had decided to fake a resume rather than fly a plane, and earned a top-level security job at one of our nuclear power plants."

snip

NIRS has called on Congress to investigate the failures at NRC, FBI, DHS and the nuclear utilities involved at Palisades and to explore whether similar problems exist with security at other nuclear power plants across the country. It will also re-apply to NRC for hearings on its security-related contentions at Palisades and Big Rock, which had previously been rejected, based on the new information revealed by Esquire.

end of excerpt. More here:

http://www.nirs.org/press/05-15-2007/1

~~~~~~~~~~
Give me solar power over this crap any day. I do not trust the nuclear industry in this country. Their plants are not safe on the whole, and any government lackey can be placed in positions of importance with millions of lives on the line or look away, much like Michael Brown was placed as head of FEMA. And private companies will always look to cut costs. No thanks. Don't dare sit and pontificate to me about the 'safety' of nuclear power plants. If this guy can get in anyone can, and that is a game of Russian roulette we cannot afford to play.

Are the 103 nuclear plants in this country truly safe from attack? This surely made me wonder:

http://www.whistleblowers.org/nrcpetition.htm

[jpak]

1. K&R

(thanks)

:toast:

[Dogmudgeon]

2. You're toasting the possibility of mass death?

I personally don't think there is any such possibility -- but YOU do.

And you're raising a toast to it.

--p!

[Beam Me Up]

3. Definitely troubling information.

Considerably more troubling if you are willing to consider the possibility that not all terrorists are Muslim or even identified as "terrorists" by conventional caveat. One can not have a genuine "war on terror" without a clear understanding of who the real terrorists are, how they actually operate and what their long-range agenda is.

[RestoreGore]

6. Absolutely, and unfortunately we have dropped the ball on that miserably

But yet, nuclear proponents will say this is just a scare tactic.

[hunter]

4. Ooooooo. Sorta like George Bush.

A deluded fellow with a fake resumé.

Are we truly safe from attack?

With George Bush, clearly not. How many people have died so far?

With William E. Clark, a guy who probably couldn't get a job as a mall cop under normal circumstances, who knows? Let's just say I'm a little concerned, but I probably won't think about it ever again. Even with his fabricated credentials he might still have been the sort of fellow who could easily take out a Volkswagen van full of elf terrorists with a single shot. (Or much more troubling, the nice guy from El Salvador who keeps the bathrooms clean...)

[RestoreGore]

7. And in both cases you don't seem to care

Even more cause for concern... The apathy of those who will support anything no matter the consequences. Don't think about it then, but I sure do worry about how many other Clarks there are out here right now and the lies being told to us by the NRC and these companies that would sacrifice safety for profit. Nuclear energy is not a renewable source of power to begin with, it is a government subsidized way for energy companies to still maintain a hold on the market by trying to look "green," and it is an insidious deception. But you continue to not think about it just to suit your own leanings. That seems to be par for the course in this country.

[Dogmudgeon]

8. "But you continue to not think about it just to suit your own leanings."

You, of course, are immune to such thinking.

You see reality as it is. Everyone who does not share your opinions is a willfully deluded fool.

Right?

:scared:

--p!

[hunter]

9. Hmmmm. Let's put these two things on the balance.

A bunch of evil and corrupt men hijack the United States military and destroy the nation of Iraq, killing hundreds of thousands of people, leaving millions more with injuries they will never recover from...

-and-

A nuclear power plant security guy fabricates his resumé and gets caught.

Yes, it does suit my "leanings" to consider the security guy's fabrications to be of lesser importance, and of very little consequence. From now on the operators of nuclear power plants will almost certainly pay much more attention the the qualifications of their security staff, and thus this exposé is a good thing, but the incident does nothing to change my opinions about nuclear power.

[Lasher]

5. Stop worrying.

Haven't you heard about the Iraq fly paper theory? They won't kill us here because they're busy killing us there.