Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

DATE=5/12/2004

TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT

TITLE=U-S / NUCLEAR SECURITY

NUMBER=5-55294

BYLINE=MEREDITH BUEL

DATELINE=WASHINGTON

INTRO: The U-S Department of Energy is taking steps to improve security at its nuclear weapons plants and research facilities in the United States because of concern that terrorists could try to steal such weapons and explode them. Critics of the department, however, say its is moving too slowly to protect its installations and that a successful terrorist attack on a site containing nuclear bombs or the materials to make them would have devastating consequences. Correspondent Meredith Buel has details in this background report from Washington.

TEXT: The Energy Department is in charge of developing and maintaining America's stockpile of nuclear weapons and providing security for a network of laboratories and defense installations.

Since the September 11th, 2001 attacks on the United States, the agency has been looking at ways to boost security to ensure design plans or the actual weapons themselves don't get into the hands of terrorists.

The Energy Department has been under criticism from the U-S Congress for moving too slowly to upgrade security.

Recently congressional auditors from the General Accounting Office issued a report saying it took the department 21 months to prepare a new threat assessment and predicted it could take up to five years to implement proposals to improve security.

The report says while the agency has taken important steps since the attacks on New York and the Pentagon, "they are not sufficient to ensure all of the department's sites are adequately prepared to defend against higher terrorist threats present in the post September 11th world."

Robin Nazzaro, the top congressional auditor monitoring the Department of Energy (D-O-E), says a successful attack on any of the seven major sites containing nuclear weapons or materials used to build them would have overwhelmingly destructive consequences for the facility and surrounding communities.

Ms. Nazzaro says the risks of a successful terrorist attack include detonation of a nuclear weapon, creation of a nuclear device, theft of weapons and the potential for sabotage in the form of dispersing radioactivity.

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A successful terrorist attack on a site containing nuclear materials or nuclear weapons could have devastating consequences. Because of these risks D-O-E needs an effective safeguards and security program.

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The Energy Department has asked security planners to prepare for the possibility that a terrorist could try to take over a facility holding nuclear materials, barricade himself inside, build a crude weapon, and detonate it in a suicide attack.

Previously security plans were designed under an assumption that a terrorist would try to break in to steal materials and could be captured on the way out.

Danielle Brian is the Executive Director on Nuclear Security for the Project on Government Oversight, an independent, non-profit group that investigates complaints about security and other problems at the nation's nuclear sites.

Ms. Brian says the most serious concern is that a team of suicide terrorists could break into a facility and quickly assemble and explode a crude bomb, known as an improvised nuclear device, or I-N-D.

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To explain an improvised nuclear device, it is an actual nuclear detonation on site, which can be accomplished within minutes by a terrorist. Concerns about I-N-D's underscore the need for further consolidation of special nuclear materials as a number of the sites simply will not be able to meet these higher standards or afford the required upgrades.

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The Deputy Secretary of the Department of Energy, Kyle McSlarrow, says his agency is moving to improve protection by consolidating sites where the government stores materials to make nuclear bombs.

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These materials are often closely tied to ongoing missions that are critical to our national security. But we do have to be mindful of the risks. We have a responsibility to balance the important work we do at our facilities, which is often critical to the war on terror, with protecting these very same facilities against the threat of terrorist acts. Ultimately, we need to reduce the number of sites with special nuclear material to the absolute minimum consistent with carrying out our missions.

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The Energy Department is now considering federalizing its security forces.

Agency officials say what may be needed is a specialized security contingent to guard the department's high-priority nuclear facilities with capabilities similar to the U-S military's highly trained Delta Force or Navy SEAL commando units.

Currently private guards protect federal nuclear research laboratories and other facilities holding plutonium and highly enriched uranium used to make nuclear bombs. (Signed)

NEB/MB/RH/FC