Documents: Dean was warned about nuclear plant lapses
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An aerial view
of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon, Vermont.
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(AP) -- Presidential hopeful Howard Dean, who
accuses President Bush of being weak on homeland security, was
warned repeatedly as Vermont governor about security lapses at his
state's nuclear power plant and was told the state was ill-prepared
for a disaster at its most attractive terrorist target.
The warnings, according to documents obtained by The Associated
Press, began in 1991 when a group of students were brought into a
secure area of the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant without proper
screening. On at least two occasions, a gun or mock terrorists
passed undetected into the plant during security tests.
During Dean's final year in office in 2002, an audit concluded
that despite a decade of repeated warnings of poor safety at Vermont
Yankee, Dean's administration was poorly prepared for a nuclear
disaster.
"The lack of funding and overarching coordination at the state
level directly impacts the ability of the state, local and power
plant planners to be adequately prepared for a real emergency at
Vermont Yankee," state Auditor Elizabeth M. Ready wrote in a study
issued five months after the September 11 attacks.
Security was so lax at Vermont Yankee that in August 2001, the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission staged a drill in which three mock
terrorists gained access to the plant. The agency gave Vermont
Yankee the worst security rating among the nation's 103 reactors.
The NRC has primary responsibility for safety at Vermont Yankee.
But Vermont laws required an active state role by creating a panel
to review security and performance and requiring plant operators to
set aside money for the state to use in the event of a nuclear
disaster.
Dean's campaign said Saturday it ultimately was the NRC's
responsibility to ensure security at the plant, but that he badgered
Vermont Yankee's operators and the NRC to make improvements during
the 1990s. It noted the NRC's safety budget was cut in the 1990s.
"After September 11, Governor Dean decided the buck stops here in
terms of security and personally ran this effort, creating a
Cabinet-level agency," spokesman Jay Carson said.
Carson acknowledged there were weaknesses before 2002 in
Vermont's nuclear preparedness, and Dean moved quickly afterward to
place state troopers and National Guardsman at the plant, distribute
radiation pills to civilians, demand a federal no-fly zone over the
plant to prevent an aerial attack, and increase emergency
preparedness funding.
"As many have said before, hindsight is 20-20 and no one could
have predicted what could have happened on a terrible day in
September 2001," Carson said.
"In retrospect, every state in the entire country could have been
safer. The important thing is after Governor Dean recognized these
vulnerabilities, he took swift, bold steps to make things better,"
Carson said.
State Auditor Ready, a Democrat and Dean backer, agreed things
improved after her critical 2002 report and that security tests this
year showed Vermont Yankee was safer. "Once Governor Dean got that
report there was swift and thorough action," she said.
But even after Ready's report recommended the state's nuclear
preparedness spending triple from $400,000 to $1.2 million, Dean
budgeted only half the increase.
That led Dean's state emergency management director, Ed von
Turkovich, to tell the Legislature in 2002 that the increase to
$800,000 "does not cover the expenses related to the program" and
that Vermont's nuclear preparedness was "in trouble, grossly
underfunded, under-resourced and has been for years." Dean's
campaign said the governor spent significant other money on security
through other departments.
The lack of preparedness was blamed in the 2002 audit on
inadequate funds. "Vermont receives the least amount of funding for
its Radiological Emergency Response Plan, in total dollars, of any
New England state that hosts a nuclear power plant," the audit
disclosed.
The audit was not the first warning to Dean, documents show.
On February 14, 2000, von Turkovich wrote Dean's top deputy,
Administration Secretary Kathleen Hoyt, expressing concern the state
was not forcing Vermont Yankee, which was up for sale, to set aside
more money for preparedness.
"We are sympathetic to the utility's concern for controlling
costs with respect to the pending sale of the plant and have
committed to expend additional state and federal resources to
subsidize this program in the coming year," von Turkovich wrote.
"However, I believe in the near future, the present or new owners
will need to broaden their level of support for preparedness
activities that need to be accomplished on behalf of the communities
that reside in the Emergency Planning Zone," he wrote.
Dean speaks to a
group in Emmetsburg, Iowa, on Saturday. |
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The documents contrast with Dean's position as a presidential
candidate who has portrayed himself as more concerned about nuclear
security than Bush.
"Our most important challenge will be to address the most
dangerous threat of all: catastrophic terrorism using weapons of
mass destruction," Dean said in his speech in Los Angeles last
month. "Here, where the stakes are highest, the current
administration has, remarkably, done the least."
Dean also has suggested Bush was unprepared before and after
September 11 to fight terrorism. "We are in danger of losing the war
on terror, because we are fighting it with the strategies of the
past," the Democratic candidate said.
The Vermont documents show Dean and his top aides received
numerous warnings about Vermont Yankee.
In August 1991, an aide sent a handwritten memo to Dean saying
there was a "security error" at Vermont Yankee that was "not
public."
A group of students "on a tour were taken into a secure area
without checking through security first," the aide wrote, saying the
matter was minor but would be disclosed to federal regulators. Dean
initialed the memo, indicating he read it.
In 1992, the NRC provided information to Dean about "declining
performances at Vermont Yankee in three important areas: plant
security, engineering/technical support and safety
assessment/quality verification," documents show.
Dean responded by writing the head of the plant that the problems
could "have an impact on the health and safety of the people of
Vermont" and "it is my expectation that you will do all in your
power to correct this declining trend." It was one of several such
letters he wrote.
Just months later, the Vermont Nuclear Advisory Panel, a state
panel, reported that two nuclear fuel mishandling incidents at the
plant were the "result of complacent operator and management
actions."
Richard Sedano, Dean's top utility regulator, said Saturday that
while "everybody has a different appreciation of terrorism after the
World Trade Center" the state closely monitored Vermont Yankee's
safety and in May 1993 staged a public hearing to embarrass the
plant's operators into improving their management. He called it a
"therapeutic and beneficial experience."
Environmental groups sent Dean repeated letters about the plant's
security and safety. During a 1998 federal security test, mock
terrorists sneaked a fake gun past security and six times scaled,
undetected, the plant's security perimeter fence.
The 1998 test was alarming because seven years earlier,
protesters had managed to breach the same security by scaling the
fence or rafting down an adjacent river. The 2001 security test
again penetrated Vermont Yankee's security.
Ready's audit in 2002 questioned why, with so many warnings about
safety, Dean's administration had significantly fewer people
committed to nuclear emergency planning than neighboring states.
"Unlike its nearest counterparts, Vermont's Division of Emergency
Management has only one full-time and two part-time staff to
support" its emergency response program, she wrote. "New Hampshire
has nearly 20 full- and part-time staff as well as consultants,
while Massachusetts has more than 20 full-time staff to carry out"
its program.
Copyright 2004 The
Associated
Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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