NRC excuses Exelon for huge security failure (allowing terrorist access to their facilities)

[kristopher]

Accountability? WTF is that?

Still think the relationship between the regulator and the profit seeking entities is different when the product is nuclear power and not banking, mining or drugs?

Think again.


Contractor’s arrest gets Oyster Creek in trouble with Nuclear Regulatory Commission

From Press staff reports | Posted: Tuesday, April 13, 2010 | 3 comments

LACEY TOWNSHIP — The Oyster Creek nuclear power plant violated Nuclear Regulatory Commission rules after a contractor’s employee failed to report that he had been arrested.

The employee for contracting company Bartlett Nuclear Inc. concealed his arrest from his employer and from Oyster Creek and its parent company, Exelon Corp., the NRC said Monday in a letter to the company.

The details of the arrest were not released. But nuclear power plants require employees and contractors who have unescorted access to report any arrest, criminal charges or convictions or other legal proceedings that could reflect poorly on their trustworthiness or reliability.

The NRC’s Office of Investigations decided not to cite Exelon because the employee worked for a contractor and Exelon notified the NRC when the arrest was discovered.

The access of independent contractors to the nation’s nuclear power plants came into question in March when former Buena resident Sharif Mobley was arrested in Yemen as a suspected member of the terrorist group al-Qaida. Mobley is jailed in Yemen after he allegedly shot and killed a hospital security guard during a failed escape attempt. He received security clearances as late as 2008.

Mobley, 26, worked as a contract laborer at several nuclear power plants, including Salem and Hope Creek in Lower Alloways Creek Township.

http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/press/ocean/article_b16b88e8-4758-11df-99a7-001cc4c002e0.html

This is who Mobley is connected with:
http://www.hstoday.us/content/view/12824/149/

As CT (counter terrorist)officials reeled from the threat posed by radicalized “mainstream” Americans, former New Jersey resident Sharif Mobley, who has dual Yemeni-American citizenship, tried to shoot his way out of a hospital in San'a, Yemen, killing one guard and wounding another, in an escape attempt following his arrest in a roundup of suspected AQAP members.

According to US intelligence authorities, Mobley had “direct, on-going communication” with Al Awlaki. Yemini security officials declared that Mobley was "an Al Qaeda member involved in several terrorist attacks.”

What’s most alarming about Mobley is that before he moved to Yemen two years ago he worked at three nuclear power plants from 2002 to 2008. During that time he reportedly openly espoused his jihadist ideology, raising questions about whether security authorities investigated his radicalization. Mobley passed federal background security investigations as recently as 2008.

[Statistical]

1. "Exelon notified the NRC when the arrest was discovered."

HOW DARE THEY PROMPTLY NOTIFY THE GOVERNMENT WHEN THEY DISCOVERED THE ARREST!

Er wait a minute....

[kristopher]

2. He should have never gained access to the facility.

The responsibility resides with Exelon, it is on their shoulders to ensure the subcontractor is performing as required. By not enforcing accountability of the party truly responsible, the NRC is also culpable - just as the Treasury and SEC are equally (if not more) to blame with the financial institutions for the meltdown.

We KNOW the profit seeking entities are going to cut corners. It is the job of the regulators to make that type of behavior hurts when it is found. Lack of accountability is how cronyism expresses itself.

[kristopher]

3. What, no snappy comeback?

[kristopher]

12. Crickets.

[kristopher]

4. Kick

[Confusious]

5. Is this the janitor who got arrested?

I allow janitors into high security areas ALL the time.

[kristopher]

6. This is who Mobley is connected with...

This is who Mobley is connected with. From Homeland Security Today:
http://www.hstoday.us/content/view/12824/149 /

As CT (counter terrorist)officials reeled from the threat posed by radicalized “mainstream” Americans, former New Jersey resident Sharif Mobley, who has dual Yemeni-American citizenship, tried to shoot his way out of a hospital in San'a, Yemen, killing one guard and wounding another, in an escape attempt following his arrest in a roundup of suspected AQAP members.

According to US intelligence authorities, Mobley had “direct, on-going communication” with Al Awlaki. Yemini security officials declared that Mobley was "an Al Qaeda member involved in several terrorist attacks.”

What’s most alarming about Mobley is that before he moved to Yemen two years ago he worked at three nuclear power plants from 2002 to 2008. During that time he reportedly openly espoused his jihadist ideology, raising questions about whether security authorities investigated his radicalization. Mobley passed federal background security investigations as recently as 2008.

[Confusious]

9. Maybe, just Maybe, if you post it ONE more time, I'll believe it.

Or not.

He performed maintenance work and carried supplies, and qualified for work there through federal background checks as recently as 2008.<2> Those checks consisted of criminal background checks, drug testing, psychological assessments, and identity verification.<6> A spokesman for New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said that Mobley had always been supervised while employed at the plants, did not cause any problems, and was not known to have breached security at any point during his employment there.<2> As a laborer, he would not have had access to any sensitive or security related information.<6> According to both an unnamed U.S. law enforcement official and Mohammed Albasha, a spokesman for the Yemeni Embassy, there was no known connection between Mobley's employment at the power plants and the time he spent in Yemen.<2>

[kristopher]

11. That makes the larger point

While we can harden a site against assault, it is nearly impossible to ensure so many facilities against infiltration and sabotage.
First let me deal with your oft made claim that "he's just a janitor".

I'm sure most people see the obvious and don't need this explanation, but for you I'll point out that 1) you don't know what access he was able to gain. He wasn't supposed to get inside the gate at all, so credulity regarding deeper security is warranted; and 2) the fact that he was inside is unarguable evidence that there is an extremely critical, systemic failure of the security protocols designed to protect these facilities.

Perhaps you think that screaming terrorists are going to identify themselves and storm the plants from a jeep while armed with nothing but an RPG and a desire to meet their maker? That certainly seems the perspective that pooh-poohs a terrorist intrusion into FIVE of what are supposed some of the most secure civilian facilities in the nation.

A terrorist infiltrated 5 nuclear plants.

You can sputter "he was nothing but a janitor" all you want, but he was *ALSO* a FUCKING TERRORIST.

Obviously the screening failed to prevent a terrorist from gaining access to 5 different plants, so I don't see why you think pointing to the failed process is evidence that there isn't a problem - typical "I'm nuts about nukes" thinking. Another glaring point in your post is the presence of disclaimers, "no known connection" "not known to have breached security".

Well, until he was arrested in Yemen and killed a guard, he had "no known connection with terrorism" either.

The fact is they have no idea what he was doing there.

For a period of time I evaluated sensitive facilities and planned against threats like terrorist attack. a critical part of the process was to just be in the area of the facility and have the opportunity to get to know how they do things. Secrecy surrounds those places for a reason - information and knowledge reveal both physical and operational vulnerabilities.

A known terrorist infiltrated 5 US nuclear plants and he didn't do it for amusement.

[joshcryer]

8. Yes. We're to believe he was able to do very scary and bad things.

[kristopher]

10. Two points

I'm sure most people see the obvious and don't need this explanation, but for you I'll point out that 1) you don't know what access he was able to gain. He wasn't supposed to get inside the gate at all, so credulity regarding deeper security is warranted; and 2) the fact that he was inside is unarguable evidence that there is an extremely critical, systemic failure of the security protocols designed to protect these facilities.

Perhaps you think that screaming terrorists are going to identify themselves and storm the plants from a jeep while armed with nothing but an RPG and a desire to meet their maker? That certainly seems the perspective that pooh-poohs a terrorist intrusion into FIVE of what are supposed some of the most secure civilian facilities in the nation.

A terrorist infiltrated 5 nuclear plants.

You can sputter "he was nothing but a janitor" all you want, but he was *ALSO* a FUCKING TERRORIST.

[jpak]

7. Maybe he just wanted to make turtle soup - from the endangered sea turtles *killed* by Oyster Creek

maybe he wanted it so bad he lied on his job appllication.

could happen

right?

:shrug: