I paused for a minute to allow all this to sink in before I got into the controversial part of my report. I noticed Hector doing a slow burn and fidgeting slightly in his seat. Everyone else was just listening, so I continued.
“Your radar capabilities are ineffective to the east, which is clearly a blind spot for you, and which allowed our helo to arrive undetected. You have a significant maintenance backlog on that equipment, and training for your security operators on how to use it is weak. Because of this, and a mind-set that it can’t happen here, you were not expecting an airborne assault from that sector. As a result, your staff committed their resources to the two teams of intruders they knew about, without anticipating a need for further action. Even though we had a helo, we had fewer adversaries than you had defenders, yet we won the day. By the way, dogs inside the fence would have slowed us down a bit.”
Hector sat there, stone-faced. He knew better than to interrupt. He’d have his chance later.
“Our helo delivered two men with enough explosives to cause damage to the reactor coolant pump seals on two reactor coolant pumps in containment. We accessed containment through the emergency airlock, via the fuel-handling building. Once we were there, your security forces were sufficiently depleted that we were able to enter the airlock. Having gained the airlock, we had effectively breached your last line of defense. At that point, I terminated the exercise.”
I looked around the room. Prichard looked relaxed and just in the listening mode. Lynn appeared nervous and covered that by taking notes. Hector was sitting upright and rigid in his chair. Rob looked tired but appeared to be taking it all in stride.
Dave, the shift manager, looked tired and almost bored. I interpreted that as indifference, which was not uncommon in operators. They’re intelligent and highly trained folks whose job was to run a highly technical plant. Dave probably only saw this as a game that had nothing to do with generating megawatts. That was his job.
Not waiting for people to get up the courage to challenge me, I went on.
“In terms of communications, your staff was slow to get info to the control room. The shift manager wasn’t given much time to act. Because of that, he would have been unable to bring power down rapidly enough to avoid a significant problem once we were in containment. The reactor source term was high, which would have resulted in a significant release of radioactive material to the public had we succeeded in achieving our objective, which was only a matter of time.”
Prichard looked at me directly. The look on his face was something akin to amazement. He knew I wasn’t a nuclear operator. And despite what I’m sure were some glowing recommendations about my work from the government, my knowledge of his plant and how it worked apparently still surprised him.
“Your technical familiarity of our plant is impressive, Nick.” he said. “You clearly came prepared. It appears that NeXus’s reputation is well deserved.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“I assume you have details of all of this in the report you are holding?” Prichard asked.
“Yes sir. I’ll leave it with you after the meeting, of course. We trust that you’ll treat it as proprietary information. It’s not the kind of thing we want getting around.”
Prichard nodded his head, as if that were a given. “Hector, what do you think?” he said, eyeing his security supervisor.
Hector barely took a breath before beginning. He was locked, and loaded. “Sir, as I told Rob and Lynn last night, I believe we had the situation contained up until they deviated from the design threat scenario. We had the incursion into the diesel generator rooms all but stopped, and we took down the first two perps who got to the emergency airlock. We suffered some casualties, but ultimately I believe we would have been successful had they not brought in the helicopter. I believe bringing in the helo was an unnecessary risk to the plant, and clearly a violation of drill protocol.” He paused for a moment, and then added, “We did all that with the existing problems already identified with our cameras.”
Prichard ignored the comment for the time being. “Dave, anything to add?” he asked the tired-looking shift manager.
“Well, sir, use of the helicopter jeopardized the safe operation of the facility by flying too close to the transmission lines. That’s unacceptable, drill or no drill.” When it came to the operation of the plant, he had the final say about what to do, and he didn’t like what happened last night. Safety was his concern, and the federal government licensed him to make sure the plant was operating safely and in accordance with all rules and regulations. Technically, even Prichard couldn’t overrule his decisions when it came to operating the plant.
“Aside from that, I could have probably responded a bit quicker if I’d had the information in hand a bit sooner.” Dave wanted to be on Hector’s side in this, but Nick was right. He should have been Hector’s first call. If not Hector’s, then Lynn’s. He tried to soften it as best he could. “We’ll continue to interface with Security to work out the kinks in our communications protocol.”
Prichard sipped his coffee and let everyone’s comments settle in before he continued. “So, what did we learn from all this, and where do we go from here?” he asked, looking around the room.
“Sir, my recommendations are detailed in the report,” I said, taking the lead on the discussion. “We’ve reviewed the data from the comprehensive review you did last year with the Department of Homeland Security, the NRC, and your state and local law enforcement agencies, and concur with those recommendations. In addition to that, I reviewed your strategies and target sets. I found them to be consistent with industry standards. I did a field assessment of your equipment placement and overall condition and found, as we said, a significant maintenance backlog. Finally, our performance evaluation of your security group indicates a well-trained and well-equipped first responder unit. However, given all of this, I observed several areas where you have some vulnerability. I think you’ll find my recommendations specific and actionable. Where practical, I included some cost estimates. NeXus is, of course, available for further consultation, if you desire.”
“Well, we’re going to have to take a good look at your report. I assume you’ll take the lead on that, Rob?” Prichard said in a way that wasn’t a question. Rob wearily nodded his head.
“We certainly appreciate everything you’ve done for us, Nick. You’ve been professional and insightful. Your reputation is well deserved.” Then, turning to his staff, he said, “Rob, Lynn, do you have any questions for Nick?”
Rob answered for the group. “No sir, not at this time. We did a thorough debrief of our team last night. I want to review Nick’s report before we finalize our report and make any recommendations to you.” He wanted it to be clear that it was going to be his group that made recommendations, not NeXus. “But we’ve already added the known deficiencies into the corrective action program.” Rob knew that Prichard was going to want this. Prichard always wanted this from all his direct reports. If there were identified deficiencies, they needed to be documented. Rob knew that didn’t necessarily mean they’d be fixed, but at least they’d be documented. He understood the politics well enough to know how to play the game.
“Dave, anything else from Operations?”
“Some of my guys are pissed about the helicopter. Technically, I believe having an aircraft that close to the plant violates the security plan and our restricted air space. I believe it’s a reportable event sir, by the Code of Federal Regulations — a part 50.72 8-hour non-emergency report, if I’m not mistaken.” He added, “Would you like me to take care of that?” knowing full well what the vice president’s response would be.