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 It wasn't until a videotape of guards sleeping in a "ready room" at the Peach Bottom plant in south-central Pennsylvania surfaced several months later that the NRC announced in September a special investigation.
The tip was in the form of a letter, which the NRC received last spring from a former employee who was writing on behalf of current employees. After the NRC received the letter, it allowed the Exelon Corp., owner of the plant, to investigate the allegations. In doing so, Exelon found no evidence that guards were taking nap breaks.
NRC Chairman Dale Klein testified Thursday during a Senate Environment and Public Works subcommittee hearing that one reason may be because there was collusion by the guards to sleep during their shifts. He said the letter's author asked not to be contacted, and Klein said the agency made a mistake by honoring that request.
"We were not as rigorous as we should have been," said Klein, adding that the NRC is taking action to prevent similar problems at all nuclear plants.
After the videotape surfaced, Exelon Corp. fired the Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.-based Wackenhut Corp. as its security guard provider at Peach Bottom and its other plants.
While acknowledging there was wrongdoing, company and nuclear oversight officials at the hearing sought to minimize the risk that the sleeping guards posed.
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 Christopher Crane, Exelon's chief operating officer, said the guards in the ready room were not at a guard post, but were instead in a staging area to assist other guards if there was an incident. The company has 17 reactors at 10 plants nationwide in Illinois, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., said the event was inexcusable, and he was concerned there was a culture at the plant that discouraged employees from coming forward to report problems. He said the NRC had reported a "white" finding for the incident based on their agency's color-coded threat analysis, which means the sleeping guards presented a low to moderate threat.
"A low to moderate safety threat is still too great of a threat," Casey said.
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On the Net:
Nuclear Regulatory Commission: http://www.nrc.gov/
Exelon Corp.: http://www.exeloncorp.com/
[Associated
Press; By KIMBERLY HEFLING]
Copyright 2008 The Associated
Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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