[cdn-nucl-l] Beefed-up nuclear plant security eyed

["Adam McLean" <adam.mclean@utoronto.ca>]

Posted in the Toronto Star on November 26th, 2001 and at:
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Artic
le_Type1&c=Article&cid=1006729316821&call_page=TS_Canada&call_pageid=9683321
88774&call_pagepath=News/Canada&col=968350116467
David Martin speaks out again...

Adam

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Beefed-up nuclear plant security eyed
No-fly zones one possibility, regulator says
Stan Josey
Durham Region Bureau Chief

Increased security measures at Canada's nuclear facilities, including no-fly
zones and more armed might, are being considered by the federal nuclear
regulator.

Linda Keen, president of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, said she
could not go into details of new security plans being developed in
co-operation with the Department of National Defence and Transport Canada.

"Details of what kind of personnel and what kind of weaponry they will have
(are) still being developed," she said after a speech to the Pickering Board
of Trade last week.

However, she did not rule out the use of surface-to-air missiles and the
deployment of military personnel. She said her organization is looking at
"air exclusion zones and marine exclusion zones and how we can put those in
place."

While the defence department now has CF-18 fighters stationed at CFB Trenton
patrolling airspace over Toronto and nuclear plants in Pickering and
Clarington, she said there would have to be some provision to enforce no-fly
zones on a continuing basis.

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No-fly zones around nuclear plants 'have to be enforceable'
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"I am not in favour of having air exclusion zones just for the purpose of
having them.... They have to be enforceable."

Keen said Canada is not in the same position as France, which recently
installed surface-to-air missiles and radar near its nuclear facilities.

"You have to understand that France is a nuclear power and plutonium is
stored at its nuclear stations. Canada has neither of those conditions."

But she said the necessary defences to protect Canada's nuclear facilities
will be implemented.

Since the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States, nuclear power generation
stations in Durham Region have had an around-the-clock armed police
presence. She said further security measures will be discussed at the
nuclear safety commission.

Nuclear critics, however, continue to call for major increases in security
and safety measures in the aftermath of Sept. 11.

David Martin of the Sierra Club said after Keen's address that nuclear
plants are still vulnerable to attacks by passenger jets like those used in
the U.S. terrorist attacks.

He said the facilities must be "hardened" by the strengthening of buildings
around key parts of the plants, such as containment areas designed to hold
atmospheric contamination should an accident or attack occur.

He also said nuclear plants should have anti-aircraft and marine defences
using surface-to-air missiles and radar.

While these measures would be costly, Martin said "the terrorist threat is
another cost of nuclear power that the industry must pay for as a part of
doing business."