Nuclear Plant Guards Caught Sleeping On The Job

CBS 3 PHILADELPHIA ^ | 25 SEPTEMBER 2007 | CBS 3 PHILADELPHIA

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

(CBS 3) YORK COUNTY, Pa. -- Major security changes are underway at an area nuclear plant following the discovery of several guards sleeping on the job.

The guards were caught on tape sleeping on duty, secretly taped by a fellow officer.

The images are all the more disturbing because their job is protecting the Peach Bottom Nuclear Plant, which is one of America's largest.

"It's outrageous that they're not ready to go," Peter Stockton said.

Stockton is with a government watchdog group.

The area where the guards were taped sleeping on different shifts and days, is called "the ready room."

The sleeping guards are supposed to be poised to spring into action immediately if there is an emergency.

"Certainly every one of these officers should have been wide awake and ready to go," said a former Peach Bottom officer who asked not to be identified. "Some of these officers should have been patrolling the facility."

The owner of Peach Bottom, Exelon Nuclear, said the sleeping is in its words, "not acceptable" and they've now terminated their contract with Wackenhut Security to protect Peach Bottom.

Exelon does maintain that, because the sleeping guards are only part of a much wider security net, there was no risk to the public.

"The actions we have seen on the videotape and found in our internal inquiry did not directly impact the safety and security of the plant," a statement from Exelon read.

Wackenhut Security, the same company providing security at Peach Bottom, also protects three other Exelon facilities: Three Mile Island outside Harrisburg, the Limerick Nuclear Plant in Montgomery County, and Oyster Creek in New Jersey.

However, while Wackenhut is being removed from Peach Bottom, Exelon said the company will continue to protect the other three nuclear facilities, pending the outcome of a security review.

"You're only as strong as your weakest link, and you don't want your weakest link to be a security guard sleeping on the job," Eric Epstein of a nuclear watchdog group.

Epstein, chairman of a community nuclear watchdog group "Three Mile Island Alert" said the sleeping guards show nuclear plant owners should stop outsourcing security to private companies and instead rely on officers trained and managed by the Federal Government.

"Clearly we're concerned about what we saw," Nuclear Regulatory Commission Administrator Sam Collins said.

After viewing the tape, the NRC now has a special five member team conducting what it calls a "special security inspection" at Peach Bottom.

"What we saw is not aligned with our expectations or Exelon's expectations and we will pursue it on that basis," Collins said.

The NRC will issue a report 30 days after its inspection.

Meanwhile, Wackenhut calls it quote "an anomaly," and said "it was a small number of security personnel that were not performing as they should have."

[SWAMPSNIPER]

What do they expect for 6 bucks an hour, professionals?

[Nathan Zachary]

"The guards were caught on tape sleeping on duty, secretly taped by a fellow officer."

I bet he's a real popular guy now. I wonder if 6 bucks a hour is worth the sleepless nights and that kink he's going to get in his neck from watching his back every where he goes in town

[Kirkwood]

D'oh!

[Nathan Zachary]

Epstein, chairman of a community nuclear watchdog group "Three Mile Island Alert" said the sleeping guards show nuclear plant owners should stop outsourcing security to private companies and instead rely on officers trained and managed by the Federal Government."

Yeah right. The government is so well known for it's efficiency and for running business. Epstein is clearly a nanny state liberal commie, who thinks the government should run everything.

[jer33 3]

I’m grateful that his concern for security trumped his need for popularity and acceptance.

[Nathan Zachary]

I don’t think his concern was for safety.
Otherwize he would have took his boss his concerns to his employer instead of anti nuclear power activist group.
His motives are suspect.

[Nathan Zachary]

oops-

took them to his boss or employer

[MPJackal]

“What do they expect for 6 bucks an hour, professionals?”

While not a huge fan of Wackenhut, they pay about 15-20+ an hour. And most of wackenhuts nuke guards are prior military or law enforcement. Laziness and low skilled are two very different things.

[jer33 3]

Point taken. Thank you. However, given the alert level required for our facilities based on threat, these boys can’t be slothful.

[Nathan Zachary]

No they can’t. But this guy should have simply woke them up.

Instead he let them sleep, observed this behavior for who knows how long, until he devised a plan to hopefully cash in on it by recording it over several days and selling it to the highest bidder. He didn’t want to let them defend themselves by saying it was one time thing after a late night football party or something.

By doing that, he knowingly and willingly increased the security risk for selfish reasons. Makes him just as guilty should something have happened.

[jer33 3]

http://wcbstv.com/topstories/local_story_268204231.html
Exclusive: Nuke Plant Whistleblower Explains Why
Says Guards Caught On Tape Sleeping Is Unacceptable

Snippet:
...that man says he alerted his security company of the security breach but his warnings were ignored.

Snippet:
Our whistleblower caught on tape almost a dozen of these officers sleeping at different times of the day on three different days. Before he decided to even shoot the video he says he tried to warn his supervisors.

But the reaction he received wasn’t what he expected:

“Let’s not talk about that. There’s going to be a big investigation. You’re going to find yourself in the middle of that. It’ll be harder for you to work here. You need to concentrate on being part of this team.”

[jer33 3]

NZ, I had to search for more information. See above post. It was impossible for me to determine the motivation of person who had video taped the other officers from just the one article.

I see a benefit to this story’s release. Security at the various nuclear facilities will be more closely scrutinized and hopefully the outcome will be improved service provided.

[Tammy8]

I cannot even imagine this level of stupidity. When I went to college at the young age of 18 I was hired as campus security dispatcher. I took that job seriously, and would have never dreamed of sleeping on the job!! It is beyond my thought process that people charged with protecting a nuclear facility would simply sleep on the job.

[Herakles]

So some poorly paid guard fell asleep at the plant - big deal! We have thousands of people in ICE and Homeland security asleep at the switch every day and they have yet to protect the borders or the ports from a nuke coming into the country.

The fuel in that nuke plant isn’t going anywhere; but the nukes that have gotten across our borders are probably already down town.

Anyone want to go over and wake congress and the administration up?

At least the guard knew what he was doing and was doing it to the best of his ability and was doing it for hundreds of thousands of dollars less than our government bureaucrats!

[MarkT]

Why on earth did it take video to catch this problem? The company should have in place an affirmative response protocol such that each guard had to report verbally and visually to an off-site superior - no call, no sighting and superior assumes the worst and sets off the alarm. How tough is that?

[MarkT]

The report sequence should occur every 15 minutes - sorry for the omission.

[nin_kasi]

Wackenhut also guards Turkey Point here in Miami, making around $14 + per hour. Some ex-military, some former law enforcement, and some people you’d expect to just see guarding the mall.

By the way, this is related:
Three Mile Island Security Guard Caught Playing Games
http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2006/5/30/100951.shtml?s=us

[WLR]

For one you get paid a heck of a lot more than $6 an hour..
and they earn it. The Guys at Wakenhut who do this work are damn fine Security Folks who know and practice their job continually.

For another I have some personal experience with this on the Military side of the house as part of many QRF (Quick Reaction Force)... in a number of places and in charge of a few.

If you are on duty you eat, take a dump, play cards, play pool... And if you can sleep you do. In many instances I have ordered guys to sleep.

You stay in your uniform with your weapons and equipment at hand

Depending upon the assignment you have a certain specified time to be at your position. It can be measured in min.. I have seen 600 fellows go from asleep in their racks to fully armed and moving in good order down the road in their Tanks, Trucks, and APCs in less than 15 min..

So a few fellows lazing around a ready room is really nothing now is it? Not only that but depending upon the importance of a security assignment a fellow may be assigned 1-2 hours on then a few hours off then back on again. The idea is the first guy has to be alert awake and to do that he has to be rested. In truth once you know what your doing sleeping is as much a part of proper security plan as staring over the wire.

Anyone thinks Osama bin Hiden or his cronies can by force get inside even the first layer of a Nuclear Power Facilities Security is on Crack. It gets much worse from there.

Anybody whose played GI Joe knows when the need arises you go from sleep to wide awake in seconds if necessary. Nothing like rolling out of the bed at home in the morning looking for a cup of coffee. Just not the same thing at all.

This is a BS Story, absolute nonsense.

You want the QRF Folks rested and loose so they can do the job if and when it comes to that.

W

[farlee]

First of all the fact of the matter I give props to the security officer for having the courage to say something and that not the only plant that has had problems with the sleeping officer wackenhut and there clients make it so difficult to stay awake, no reading, video games, no weight room or running unless its the real thing, etc. Its how wackenhut/clients runs it the security force. The owners of the nuclear plants see security as “NO” profit department. they lose money so they give them a small budget to work with pretty much enough for pay roll and for state weapon req.. They get written up if you play games on the Internet to try to stay awake or work 72 hours in a week becuse the company is really slow on hiring more people because of budget issues. Your plant co-workers think your department is a joke because you are the lowest payed employee onsite even though your might lose your life to save theres if something should happen. So I don’t believe that the guy that took the video of his coworker was politically motived to do this. I go to my site and see the samething sometimes.