Reid renews battle to strengthen security at nuclear power plants

Benjamin Grove

Friday, July 26, 2002 | 9:56 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Fresh from his failed fight against the nuclear energy industry over Yucca Mountain, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., is renewing his battle with nuclear utilities on another front: strengthening plant security.

Reid, along with Sens. James Jeffords, I-Vt., and Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., on Thursday unveiled a new version of an old bill that calls for:

The bill will "vastly improve" plant security, Reid said.

Reid first introduced the plant security legislation in November, but has tinkered with it in an effort to garner more support and address a few NRC concerns.

Notably absent from Reid's revised bill was his proposal to federalize nuclear plant security guard within the NRC. Reid dropped that provision in part to give it more political momentum in Congress, aides said.

That proposal had irked the NRC and nuclear utility companies who said private plant security forces, including gun-toting security officers, are already formidable. NRC officials have said they are still undergoing a "top to bottom" review of security looking for weaknesses, but see no need to take on the responsibility of plant security.

Despite changes, Reid's retooled legislation still drew a prompt rebuke from one member of the five-member Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which regulates nuclear power plants.

The bill "is so rife with bad provisions that I literally could not sleep last night," NRC Commissioner Edward McGaffigan wrote in a Thursday letter to Jeffords. McGaffigan wrote that it is not clear what purpose the anti-terrorism team and security coordinator would serve, among other critiques.

And nuclear industry officials also still object to the bill, said Mitch Singer, spokesman for the Nuclear Energy Institute. The bill duplicates many of the protections already in place. The industry doesn't need a law calling for more communication between plants and local authorities, for instance, Singer said.

"It's already happening," Singer said.

It's not clear how the bill will fare in the Senate, although Reid said its chances are "pretty good," adding that several Republicans have signed on in support. Reid and Jeffords are leaders of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, which approved the legislation Thursday.