“One more thing you should know,” Marti continued. “Jansen has been keeping company with a guy named Stone, who rented a car in LA recently and then disappeared. The FBI is looking for him, but so far, no luck.”
Even though he was a large black man, Marti thought she could see the blood drain from Prichard’s face. “What is it?” she asked. “Are you feeling all right?”
Prichard had a distant stare. “Nick asked me to look at shift staffing to see if there was anything unusual.”
“So?”
“The shift manager scheduled for tonight called in sick and was replaced by Dave Street.”
Marti didn’t see the issue. “How does that connect to this?”
“The shift manager runs this place. He has knowledge and access to whatever he wants. He’s key to the safe operation of this facility.”
“I know all that, but I still don’t see…”
Prichard cut her off by jumping out of his chair. He leaned on the desk with his large palms down.
“His wife and two children are down in LA at Disneyland!”
CHAPTER 35
Prichard was uncharacteristically unnerved. This was new territory for him. He was a smart man and one who knew how to navigate the various political realities of running a large nuclear power plant, and showed poise and grace in doing it. He was no longer involved with engineering details of running the plant — his first love. His job was one of politics now. It was this ability, more than his engineering knowledge, that resulted in him being chosen as the site vice president for this nuclear plant in a politically charged state. But now his plant was under threat of attack, and if he believed what he’d just been told, they had help from a handpicked member of his staff.
Prichard had a well-nourished ego, and was used to dealing with Washington types and executives from his own company as well as those from other nuclear power companies, but he was unprepared for all of this. Terrorists had never taken over a nuclear power plant before. Despite all the planning and drills, it was actually happening now and it just didn’t fit into his neat, orderly existence.
In front of him sat a very young woman, who, right now, was the face of the federal government to him. He knew she was out of her league, as much as he was out of his. By morning the plant would be crawling with FBI and county law enforcement, whether he liked it or not.
He started to quickly organize what he knew. The FBI wanted to lock down the plant and do a detailed search, but of course, the feds didn’t know the plant. They were going to need help from people who did and that would be a logistical nightmare. Whatever they were looking for was probably already here. He was charged with the protection of the health and safety of the people who lived around the plant, and he couldn’t do anything to jeopardize that. On the technical side of things, holding power at 100 percent for a couple of weeks was simply impossible. If he were going to comply with the FBI wishes, he would have to find a way to manage the needs of the plant as well as the wants of the FBI. To do that, he’d need help from his plant staff and at the moment, didn’t know whom he could and could not trust.
But he had no intention of letting it get that far. He looked at his watch. He had an ace in the hole… one that the FBI didn’t know about. He was running out of time, and he knew it.
Just then, his hone rang, breaking him out of his contemplation. Even though the phone didn’t indicate who was calling, he recognized the number as one Nick had been using.
“Hey, Nick. I’ve been waiting for your call. I’m afraid I have some bad news.”
Prichard surprised me. He said ‘bad news’ in a matter of fact way, as if he were talking about some maintenance activity. I was impressed with his ability to stay calm under trying, and certainly unanticipated, circumstances. That was actually a boost to my morale, which was, admittedly, a bit low considering what I was about to do.
“I’ve been busy. Fill me in.”
“Marti is here and is telling me that in the morning, the feds want me to stop the outage preps and clear the plant site of unnecessary personnel. Then they want us to sweep the plant. They’re hoping to stop whatever and whoever might be trying something.”
I had some bad news for him, too, but before I could get to it, he told me something I didn’t know.
“The FBI thinks that Ellingson is the insider. My security manager, for God’s sake! I can’t believe it, but they’ve been monitoring phone calls between him and that guy you talked about, Jansen.”
I took the news in stride. I suspected it was someone in security, but I wouldn’t have guessed the security manager. In my experience, I could always count on something unexpected like this. But my plans had already been set in motion regardless of who had been corrupted.
“That’s unfortunate,” I told him in an even, measured tone, “but not altogether unexpected. Regardless, we’ve got to move and move now… tonight. We can’t — and don’t want to — wait for the FBI to take action tomorrow.”
Prichard paused briefly, and then said, “Good. We need to put this to bed and soon. I can’t have them roaming all over the plant looking for God knows what.
Not exactly what I was expecting to hear. I was expecting him to push back. He continued to surprise me. He had more fortitude that I’d have given him credit for. And that was good because he’d need it before this was done. I hoped he would take what I was about to tell him with as much aplomb.
“I need you to do something for me,” I said quietly. I’d found in the past that soft tones helped convey difficult news.
“What is it?” Prichard said in a more subdued voice, in response to my hushed tones.
“I need you to reduce power on Unit 1 to fifty percent and shut down the 1–1 main circulating water pump. Then shut down and clear the screens on that pump.”
Prichard was quiet for a moment. The main circ water pump pushed sea water into the condenser for cooling. They only had two pumps per unit and shutting one down required them to reduce power to fifty percent. I knew he was processing this request. I wanted to make sure he understood what he’d just heard, so I gave him a few seconds to absorb it.
Then Prichard said, “What the hell good is shutting down the 1–1 circ water pump going to do for us? If I order the shift manager to reduce power, there’ll be operators all over the plant taking actions. That’s dangerous on a number of levels. Then there’s the FBI. I doubt they’re going to like that idea very much.”
“I thought you said the FBI wasn’t going to be there until morning?”
“Well, yes, that’s what Marti said.”
“Then they haven’t given you any directions, yet, correct?”
“Technically, that’s correct, but Marti…”
“Look, we can go round and round on this but we don’t have time. Tell whoever you need to you have to reduce power because of a screen problem. Tell them kelp has broken off because of the storm, clogged the screens, and you have to reduce power immediately. It happens this time of year, doesn’t it? Besides, fifty percent power isn’t going to cause a problem with any of security’s target sets. Correct me if I’m wrong but dropping power actually helps us by reducing the source term,” I said. “If the bad guys are successful in causing plant damage and a release of some kind, then starting from a lower power level will limit the amount of radioactivity released. I’m sure the FBI folks don’t know that but will respect the fact that you do. So you need to sell them on this. Or not. I don’t care. Just shut the pump down and do it soon!”