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Kerry Campaign Statement on Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham's Nuclear Security Speech

John Kerry for President

For Immediate Release
May 7, 2004

Contact: Chad Clanton or Phil Singer, 202-712-3000

More than two and a half years after the 9/11 attacks, the Energy Department is finally getting around to taking steps to protect nuclear facilities.  It is acting only after the GAO reports that the Energy Department has failed to secure nuclear weapons facilities, and American chemical plants remain vulnerable to attack. The Department of Energy's own auditor reported in March 2004 that training to prevent terrorist attacks at the Savannah River plant and 11 other sites had been cut, leaving the facilities dangerously compromised.
 
Kerry spokesman Phil Singer said: "When President Bush says he's doing everything that needs to be done on homeland security, he's not telling the truth.  The fact is that an independent watchdog had to spot security weaknesses at our nuclear weapons facilities in order to get the White House to even start thinking about a pro-active way to address these issues.  The White House needs to take a break from playing politics with homeland security and focus on actually securing the homeland."
 
AMERICAN NUCLEAR WEAPONS PLANTS REMAIN VULNERABLE
 
GAO Reports That Energy Department Failed to Secure Nuclear Weapons Labs. In April 2004, the General Accounting Office (GAO) reported that the Energy Department had failed to adequately ensure the security of the nation's nuclear weapons laboratories, including Savannah River in South Carolina, from terrorists. Bomb-making materials at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, for example, are kept in a fenced area known as Superblock, where security personnel do not have high-powered weapons, door-breaching explosives or helicopters to defend the site. The report claims that terrorists could easily penetrate the facility and build a 1 kiloton bomb, or a "dirty bomb," within minutes. [Los Angeles Times, 4/27/04]
 
American Nuclear Weapons Plants Remain Unprepared to Prevent Terrorist Attacks. In March 2004, the Inspector General of the Department of Energy reported that nuclear weapons plant­including the Savannah River site in South Carolina­were unprepared to repel terrorist attacks because of reductions in training. Some plants had reduced training hours by as much as 40 percent and others conducted training only in classrooms. Only one of 10 plants surveyed trains guards in the basic use of a shotgun, according to the report. [Washington Post, 3/18/04]