Word: planting
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...nation's big nuclear power companies seem to be making enough money to hire more guards, who earn an average of $35,000 annually. Chicago-based Exelon Corp., for example, whose 17 reactors make it the largest nuclear-plant operator in the U.S., saw its power-generation unit triple its income in the first quarter of 2005 compared with first quarter 2004, from $102 million to $320 million. Operators may be worried about future profits, since the increasing move to deregulate electricity has forced most nuclear plants to compete with other electricity producers, all of whom are seeking to sell...
Even if the current security standards are sufficient, there is some question as to whether they will be properly enforced. Last year the NRC approved the NEI's request to hire the Wackenhut Corp. to test security at the nation's plants. Such exercises--suspended after 9/11, pending improvements--resumed last fall. Each plant is to be tested once every three years, which means the British-owned Wackenhut is running fake attacks twice a month...
...Wackenhut also provides security at about half the nation's nuclear reactors. "The very company that makes a living guarding nuclear power plants is also testing nuclear power plants' security," says Congressman Markey. "It's like a take-home exam." No one in the industry has forgotten that just before a mock attack against a DOE facility in 2003, Wackenhut "attackers" tipped off Wackenhut guards about the particulars of the drill. Under the new rules, NRC referees are supposed to pay close attention to ensure that Wackenhut's fake attackers aren't holding back when they launch a mock strike...
...panel concluded by warning that additional study of security at the nation's nuclear plants "is needed urgently." It said twice that the review should be done by someone "independent of the NRC and the nuclear industry." That's a frightening postscript. Since 9/11, virtually everything having to do with nuclear-plant security has been in the hands of the NRC and the nuclear industry. Diaz takes offense at the N.A.S.'s pointed snub of his agency's expertise. "The recommendation was not well justified," he says. "I don't believe we need anybody to come...
...growing, and prices for fossil fuels like natural gas are steadily rising. Even environmentalists like Whole Earth Catalog founder Stewart Brand, Greenpeace co-founder Patrick Moore and scientist James Lovelock have endorsed the once taboo energy source as a credible, clean alternative to coal- and natural-gas-powered plants. While most Americans still don't want a nuke plant in their backyard, some economically depressed areas, like Port Gibson, Miss., and Oswego, N.Y., are actively lobbying to be the home of a new reactor--and of all the jobs and tax revenue that come with it. Most important, the powers...