April 23, 2002
By Jon Dougherty

A Massachusetts Democrat is criticizing the Bush administration's decision to reject a funding increase request by the Department of Energy to upgrade emergency response capabilities and improve safety at its nuclear sites.

Rep. Ed Markey, in letters sent to President George W. Bush and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, lambasted the Office of Management and Budget's rejection, saying now that DOE "finally admits that security is not what it should be," the White House is refusing to help.

"The administration has requested almost $8 billion for missile defense, which won't do anything to prevent suicidal terrorists from attacking nuclear facilities and blowing up dirty bombs or homemade nuclear weapons," said Markey, a senior member of the Energy and Commerce Committee and co-chair of the Bipartisan Task Force on Nonproliferation.

He said DOE requested supplemental funds from OMB March 14 "to improve safeguards and security at DOE facilities," but "that request was rejected."

Then, on March 28, he said Bruce M. Carnes of DOE sent a letter to Marcus Peacock at OMB "expressing [Energy's] disappointment that OMB rejected its budget request" without giving the agency "the opportunity to discuss its concerns" prior to the rejection.

OMB rejected the DOE request, Markey said, because the agency "has not completed … the revised Design Basis Threat," a document that outlines the basis for physical security measures.

DOE's Carnes, in his letter, said the agency "was not operating, nor can it operate, under the pre-September 11 Design Basis Threat."

"Until that is revised," DOE said, "we must operate under Interim Implementing Guidance, and you [OMB] have not provided resources to enable us to do so."

Amy Call, a spokeswoman for OMB, said Bush has made security at the nation's nuclear facilities a top priority, and that Congress approved a $110 million supplemental to the fiscal 2002 budget to boost security at the labs.

She also said Bush was seeking an extra $650 million to protect the facilities in his 2003 budget, adding that OMB was still reviewing Energy's funding request, and that the money could be provided following the completion of a "vulnerability assessment."

"Obviously security is important and this is an issue we're working on," she told The Associated Press Monday.

That exchange comes nearly three months after Markey sent a letter to Abraham Jan. 23 "regarding the inadequacy of security at DOE facilities." He said that letter had yet to be answered.

DOE denies its facilities are at risk.

"Allegations that the [department] has lax security at its nuclear weapons facilities are false and misleading," said Gen. John Gordon, USAF (Ret.), undersecretary of Energy and administration of the National Nuclear Security Administration.

"I have assessed the security conditions at our sites many times and I personally reviewed our posture immediately following the terrorist attacks in September," he said in a Jan. 23 statement. "While we welcome serious inquiries into the Department's security practices, it is unfortunate that some try to create a climate of fear grossly disproportionate to the risks to the public."

Nevertheless, in his current letter to Bush, Markey requested the president's "immediate assistance" to ensure "these funds are included in the supplemental budget request," and that Bush "ensures the security of DOE's nuclear weapons facilities becomes and remains a high priority for the administration."

Markey has been an outspoken critic of alleged security gaps at the nation's nuclear sites.

In a March 25 report, "Security Gap: A Hard Look At the Soft Spots in Our Civilian Nuclear Reactor Security" – which reportedly analyzed "more than 100 pages of Nuclear Regulatory Commission correspondence" sent to Markey – the congressman said "there is little comfort to be found in the agency's response to my questions."

"Black hole after black hole" in security "is described and left unaddressed," Markey said. Post Sept. 11, "a nuclear safety agency that does not know – and seems little interested in finding out – the nationality of nuclear reactor workers or the level of resources being spent on security at these sensitive facilities is not doing its job."

His report found:


* Twenty-one nuclear reactors in the U.S. are located within five miles of an airport, but 96 percent of all U.S. reactors were designed without regard for "the potential for impact from even a small aircraft";
* The NRC "does not know what its licensees spend on security or how many security guards are employed at each reactor";
* "Aircraft impact to the containment structure of a nuclear reactor is not the only way an aircraft could cause a full-scale core meltdown";
* It took "the NRC almost six months after 9/11 to require enhanced security at nuclear reactors";
* The agency has "historically failed to adjust the security regulations to meet the evolving threat[s], and has yet to begin a permanent revision of security regulations following the events of Sept. 11."

Markey's report also found that the nuclear safety agency "does not know how many foreign nationals are employed at nuclear reactors," nor does it "require adequate background checks of nuclear reactor employees that would determine whether an employee was a member of a terrorist organization."

Nuclear security has also been criticized by the Project on Government Oversight, a government watchdog agency that published a report critical of nuclear weapons security in October 2001.

Gordon said POGO used "outdated data" to draw its conclusions.

"In the mid-1990s, when budgets were severely cut and security was progressively degraded, there was a higher level of risk. Now we aggressively protect our people, facilities, and material, and we display a formidable security posture to potential attackers," he said. "Our forces are well-trained and well-equipped. They are tested by outside challengers, often to failure – so we know where weaknesses are. Then we fix the problem."

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jon E. Dougherty is a staff reporter and columnist for WorldNetDaily, and author of the special report, "Election 2000: How the Military Vote Was Suppressed."

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=27340