The devastating terrorist attacks of September 11th forever changed our nation's perspective. POGO's homeland security investigations are challenging the government for failing to adequately protect the public. In 2002, the U.S. government created a 180, 000 employee bureaucracy charged with domestic protection. POGO's investigations focus on the allocation of dollars and resources in America's homeland defense.



Click on one of the program areas below:

 Biodefense Security and Oversight
 Chemical Security
Nuclear Power Plant Security
 Nuclear Weapons Complex Security
 Post 9/11 Security



Biodefense Security and Oversight


Biologist reinforces POGO’s letter concerning CDC investigations, August 12, 2005. Using three examples of flawed CDC investigations Bavoil argues that the CDC’s investigations suffer from poor training which leads them to sometimes jump to incorrect conclusions with implications for public health and safety. read this letter »

POGO letter to Congress raising concerns with CDC investigative ability. A flawed CDC investigation of a laboratory-acquired infection raises concerns about the quality of CDC investigations.  Faulty CDC investigations could lead to poor oversight at laboratories handling dangerous pathogens and a delayed response to incidents of bioterrorism. July 6, 2005. read this letter »

Biodefense: A plague of researchers, By POGO's  Nick Schwellenbach, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, May/June 2005.
To this day, nobody knows who mailed the envelopes laced with anthrax that infected 22 people and killed five in 2001. Well-aware that such an attack could happen again, the federal government poured money into research on "priority" biological weapons agents--pathogens categorized as posing the greatest threat to national security. read this article »

Biologist Critiques Biodefense Safety and Security Regulations, April 27, 2005. read this report »


Chemical Security


Ammonium nitrate regulated – sort of. Los Angeles Times, by Ralph Vartabedian, December 31, 2007.
The fertilizer can be used in explosives. Some in law enforcement and counter-terrorism wanted much tighter controls than Congress passed. More than 12 years after Timothy J. McVeigh used ammonium nitrate fertilizer to blow up the Oklahoma City federal building, Congress quietly passed legislation this month to regulate sales of the explosive. But the Secure Handling of Ammonium Nitrate Act of 2007, part of an appropriations measure signed Wednesday by President Bush, falls far short of the strict law that some in the counter-terrorism community and federal law enforcement were hoping for. "The bill really does not guarantee anything for the security of the citizens of the United States," said Bill Albright, a Defense Department consultant who spent his career at what is now known as the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, or ATF. The law, which the fertilizer industry supported, leaves the U.S. with weaker controls on ammonium nitrate than Britain, Germany, Australia, Israel, Saudi Arabia and many other nations. Ammonium nitrate has been used in terrorist bombings around the world, including the attacks on U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya in 1998. Because of last-minute revisions to the legislation, many federal officials and outside experts -- and even some members of Congress -- are uncertain exactly what it mandates. … "The more agencies that get involved, the more confusion that exists, and the more confusion that exists, the less safety we have." The explosives industry has worked closely with the ATF to improve domestic control of explosives, Dean said [Jeffrey L. Dean is executive director of the International Society of Explosives Engineers] , a system that was difficult to implement but is now working well. Currently, federal licenses are required to purchase dynamite and TNT, as well as some prepared blends of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil, but not raw ammonium nitrate. Outside groups are asking for tougher action. "Congress simply didn't understand what it was doing," said Peter Stockton, senior investigator for one of the groups, the Project on Government Oversight, which is a watchdog on national security issues. "Maybe they thought doing something was better than nothing."




Nuclear Power Plant Security


POGO letter requesting NRC Inspector General Bell to investigate Chairman Klein's negative and misleading comments about a whistleblower, May 1, 2008.

What Nuclear Renaissance?, The Nation, By Christian Parenti, April 24, 2008. [This article appeared in the May 12, 2008 edition of The Nation.]
If you listen to the rhetoric, nuclear power is back. Smashing atoms will replace burning carbon-based coal, gas and oil. In the face of a disaster movie-like future of runaway climate change--bringing drought, floods, famine and social breakdown--carbon-free nukes are cast as the deus ex machina to save us at the last minute.

Even a few greens support nuclear power--most famously James Lovelock, father of the Gaia theory. In the popular press, discussion of nuclear energy is dominated by its boosters, thanks in part to sophisticated industry PR.

In an effort to jump-start a "nuclear renaissance," the Bush Administration has pushed one package of subsidies after another. For the past two years a program of federal loan guarantees has sat waiting for utilities to build nukes. Last year's appropriations bill set the total amount on offer at $18.5 billion. And now the Lieberman-Warner climate change bill is gaining momentum and will likely accrue amendments that will offer yet more money.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) expects up to thirty applications to be filed to build atomic plants; five or six of those proposals are moving through the complicated multi-stage process. But no new atomic power stations have been fully licensed or have broken ground. And two newly proposed projects have just been shelved. … "The NRC falls all over itself to facilitate the industry," says Ray Shadis, a consultant who has worked for both environmental groups and on NRC panels and research projects. The Project on Government Oversight and other watchdog groups point to a revolving door between the commission's staff and the nuclear industry. To take just one example, in 2007 former commissioner Jeffrey Merrifield joined the Shaw Group after spending his last months on the commission pushing to ease restrictions for precisely the type of construction activities that were the Shaw Group's specialty.

Diana Sidebotham, an antinuclear activist in Putney, Vermont, twenty miles north of the Vermont Yankee plant, thinks Entergy and the NRC are courting disaster. In 1971 Sidebotham helped found the New England Coalition on Nuclear Pollution, and she has been trying to shut down nuclear plants ever since. Her hillside farm looks out over the ridge lines of the Connecticut River Valley. …

Inside The Beltway, The Washington Times, By John McCaslin, April 4, 2008.
… Fallout shelter

Security personnel guarding the nation's nuclear power plants hopefully won't be sleeping on the job in light of a new rule enacted by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that limits collective work-hour averages to 48 hours per person per week.

Reacts Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project On Government Oversight: "It is critically important that those who are guarding the nation's nuclear plants will now be fulfilling their mission without being exhausted."

POGO Alert - POGO Salutes NRC For Implementing New Work Rules; Security Guards No Longer to Work Excessive Hours, April 2, 2008.

Nuclear Regulatory Commission: Fitness for Duty Programs; Final Rule, Federal Register, March 31, 2008 (Volume 73, Number 62), Rules and Regulations, Page 16965-17014. DOCID:fr31mr08-14
Public confidence--Public interest groups such as the UCS and the Project on Government Oversight have commented at public meetings that relevant information regarding worker fatigue is withheld to either protect alleger identity or, in the case of security personnel, plant security. In addition, several public media articles have been published during the past 2 years reporting instances of guards sleeping and guards fearing repercussions for refusing forced and excessive overtime. Information submitted by licensees in the annual reports will be publicly available and will reassure public stakeholders that the NRC is appropriately cognizant of licensee actions regarding fatigue management and that the NRC's oversight of these activities is transparent to all stakeholders. …

Since September 11, 2001, the NRC has received several reports of nuclear security officers found asleep while on duty. In addition, the NRC received numerous allegations from nuclear security officers that certain licensees have required them to work excessive amounts of overtime over long periods as a result of the post-September 11 threat environment. The nuclear security officers questioned their readiness and ability to perform their required job duties because of fatigue and stated that they feared reprisal if they refused to work assigned overtime. The NRC received similar information from newspaper articles and from interactions with public stakeholder groups. For example, the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) issued a report entitled, "Nuclear Power Plant Security: Voices from Inside the Fences," and submitted this report to the NRC staff (ADAMS Accession No. ML031670987). POGO interviewed more than 20 nuclear security officers protecting 24 nuclear reactors (at 13 plants) to obtain material for its report. POGO reported that the security officers who were interviewed said, "Their plants are heavily relying on increased overtime of the existing guard force * * *. These guards raised serious concerns about the inability to remain alert." After reviewing the work hours and FFD concerns of security personnel subsequent to September 11, 2001, the NRC issued Order EA-03-038 to limit the work hours of security personnel and ensure that they remain capable of safely and competently performing their duties. The order requires compensatory measures for limiting work hours to a collective work hour average of 48 hours per person per week during normal operations, as well as limiting work hours to an average of 60 hours per week for planned plant outages and planned security system outages.

 POGO Letter to NRC Chairman Klein: he owes a public apology to a nuclear security whistleblower, March 18, 2008.

POGO's Letter in Response to the February 26, 2008 NRC Region I Letter, March 5, 2008.

Executive Resigns in Storm Over Sleeping Guards, Washington Post, by Steven Mufson, January 10, 2008.
Wackenhut, a private security firm that guards 21 commercial nuclear power plants around the United States, said yesterday that its chief executive resigned during continuing controversy about guards caught napping at a Pennsylvania reactor last year. Gary A. Sanders had been Wackenhut's chairman and chief executive since 2003. Over the past year, Sanders has been engulfed by allegations of lapses in security at nuclear plants, an audit over whether it overcharged the city of Miami for transit guards, and a bitter dispute with the Service Employees International Union. Last month, Exelon, the largest U.S. private nuclear power generator, terminated Wackenhut's contract to protect the utility's 10 nuclear plants. An Exelon spokesman said Wackenhut standards were not Exelon's standards. The House Energy and Commerce Committee said Monday that it would hold a hearing to look into the Pennsylvania incident and why the Nuclear Regulatory Commission failed to respond to a Wackenhut whistleblower who tried to draw regulators' attention to the problem of sleeping security guards. … On Dec. 14, Sen. Robert P. Casey Jr. (D-Pa.) wrote a letter to Sanders calling Wackenhut's response to Beal's early alerts "unacceptable." In an angry five-page reply to Casey, Sanders said the sleeping guards were an issue "at one specific shift of personnel at that site only." He said Wackenhut management was not aware of Beal's allegations until the video aired, though Beal's lawyer, David Wachtel, said his client alerted his supervisors, who told him to be a "team player." Sanders also questioned Exelon's decision to fire Wackenhut. He said that "security is not a core competency of the energy manufacturer" and that "it will be a challenge for them to conduct security operations better than Wackenhut." A separate dispute remains over Exelon, which has hired many of the Wackenhut guards but did not hire Beal. Exelon said he did not meet the criteria, but Wachtel said Exelon cited a one-day suspension that Beal received for being eight minutes late for work one day. The suspension was given after Beal tried to alert supervisors to the sleeping guards.

Video of Sleeping Guards Shakes Nuclear Industry, Sight of Guards Asleep Shakes Industry, Washington Post, by Steven Mufson, January 4, 2008.
Kerry Beal was taken aback when he discovered last March that many of his fellow security guards at the Peach Bottom nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania were taking regular naps in what they called "the ready room." When he spoke to supervisors at his company, Wackenhut Corp., they told Beal to be a team player. When he alerted the regional office of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, regulators let the matter drop after the plant's owner, Exelon, said it found no evidence of guards asleep on the job. So Beal videotaped the sleeping guards. The tape, eventually given to WCBS, a CBS television affiliate in New York City, showed the armed workers snoozing against walls, slumped on tabletops or with eyes closed and heads bobbing. The fallout of the broadcast is still being felt. … While Wackenhut has a long history of alleged flaws in its nuclear security operations and labor discontent, there is plenty of blame to go around. The NRC, which in the past has referred 40 percent of wrongdoing allegations to nuclear plant licensees, is looking at its own procedures as well as Wackenhut's. David Lochbaum, a nuclear safety expert at the Union of Concerned Scientists, faults the NRC for "failing to 'connect the dots' " between Peach Bottom and other complaints about Wackenhut. "More than anything else, we have to change the way the NRC responds to these allegations," said commission member Gregory B. Jaczko. … In addition, Wackenhut had misled the government about worker training. It reported planned training as actual training time, and protective-force personnel had signed attendance rosters for on-the-job refresher training they had not attended, the IG report said. Friedman's office also found that one Wackenhut unit, hired by the NRC to simulate an attack on nuclear facilities, had tipped off ano ther Wackenhut unit charged with guarding the facilities at Y-12 about the attack strategy. Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project on Government Oversight, said in a 2004 letter to the NRC that "this is more than a case of the proverbial fox guarding the henhouse. It is not an apparent conflict of interest -- but a blatant conflict of interest."

Nuclear plants' security is fired, Tulsa World, By Dave Carpenter, Associated Press, December 15, 2007
Exelon Corp. said Friday it will replace Wackenhut Corp. with an in-house security force at its 10 nuclear powerplants following the discovery earlier this year that guards at a Pennsylvania plant were sleeping on the job. ..Exelon said it was acting even though a review of security at its other plants found "no significant deficiencies." The change is to be made by next July. The Chicago-based company was under pressure to take the action following an uproar over the video and other alleged sleeping incidents. ...The move prompted a mixture of reactions from those who have been pushing for changes. ...Peter Stockton of the Project on Government Oversight, a Washington-based government watchdog group, contended that firing the company doesn't eliminate the problem. "We're no great fans of Wackenhut, let me tell you," said Stockton, a senior investigator at POGO. "However, we believe that Exelon was every bit as culpable in this as Wackenhut." He claimed money had been budgeted to upgrade the room where the guards were filmed sleeping, to provide more stimulating environments to keep them awake, but that Exelon hadn't spent it as intended.

Exelon fires Wackenhut as nuclear plant security after incidents, The Canadian Press, December 14, 2007.
Exelon Corp. said Friday it will replace Wackenhut Corp. with an in-house security force at its 10 nuclear power plants following the discovery earlier this year that guards at a Pennsylvania plant were sleeping on the job. The announcement came 2 1/2 months after Exelon terminated its contract with Wackenhut at the Peach Bottom nuclear power plant in south-central Pennsylvania after security officers were videotaped nodding off or dozing. Exelon said it was acting even though a review of security at its other plants found "no significant deficiencies." The change is to be made by next July. The Chicago-based company was under pressure to take the action following an uproar over the video and other alleged sleeping incidents. On Thursday, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission directed operators of commercial nuclear power plants to provide it new information about their security practices after reports of recent lapses. … The move prompted a mixture of reactions from those who have been pushing for changes. U.S. Senator Bob Casey (D-Pa.) demanded more information about the incidents in a letter Friday to Wackenhut CEO Gary Sanders. Besides expressing concern about Wackenhut's handling of the Peach Bottom situation, he said appropriate steps must be taken to ensure similar problems do not occur at other power plants where the company handles security. Peter Stockton of the Project on Government Oversight, a Washington-based government watchdog group that has been following the situation, contended that firing the company doesn't eliminate the problem. "We're no great fans of Wackenhut, let me tell you," said Stockton, a senior investigator at POGO. "However, we believe that Exelon was every bit as culpable in this as Wackenhut." He claimed that money had been budgeted to upgrade the room where the guards were filmed sleeping, in order to provide more stimulating environments to keep them awake, but that Exelon hadn't spent it as intended. "There's a real problem with the licencees squeezing the amount of the money that the contractors can use," Stockton said.

POGO Alert - Whistleblower Demands NRC Commission Conducts Investigation of Security Violations and Its Campaign of Retaliation, December 10, 2007.

NRC plans more inspections at Peach Bottom, The Examiner.com, by Matthew Santoni, November 30, 2007.
Federal investigators plan more inspections at Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station because of continuing concerns emerging from an investigation into guards caught sleeping on the job. Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspectors will visit the nuclear power plant over the coming year to ensure that operator Exelon Nuclear has taken adequate steps to deal with the sleeping guards and the supervisors who never reported them, said Diane Screnci, an NRC spokeswoman. … Peter Stockton, an inspector for the watchdog group Project on Government Oversight, praised the additional NRC inspections. “They do appear to be taking this seriously,” Stockton said. “It’s something, finally.” But, he said, the NRC might be talking to the wrong people to get information. “You’re not going to learn a lot by meeting with management; you’ve got to develop relationships with the people who work there,” he said. “Management is not just going to volunteer what all the problems are.” An NRC team that visited earlier this month is to present its findings Monday.

Response Letter to POGO from NRC Chairman Dale Klein regarding Peach Bottom Nuclear Power Plant, November 28, 2007.

NRC Strengthening Whistle Blower Protections, Power Market Today (by Intelligence Press), November 15, 2007.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is amending its employee protection regulations to clarify its authority to impose a fine on contractors and subcontractors if they violate NRC rules by discriminating against employees for engaging in "protected activities." … The amendments also allow the NRC to impose a fine on the United States Enrichment Corporation (USEC), as well as a contractor or subcontractor of USEC, if it discriminates against an employee for engaging in protected activities at its gaseous diffusion plants in Kentucky and Ohio. … The NRC emphasized that the amendments do not represent a change in its long-held view that licensees are responsible for maintaining control and oversight of contractor and subcontractor activities. There may be instances in which the NRC may wish to issue fines to both the responsible contractor or subcontractor and the licensee, such as in situations in which the licensee is aware of discrimination by its contractor or subcontractor and does not take immediate action to remedy the situation. The amendments were published Jan. 31, 2006, as a proposed rule for public comment. The NRC received three comments, which are addressed in the final rule. The final rule was approved by the NRC on Oct. 24 and will be published soon in the Federal Register. The amendments will be effective 30 days after publication. In September the Project on Government Oversight claimed that NRC Region 1 personnel "repeatedly ignored" warnings of lax security at Exelon Nuclear's 2,224 MW Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station in Delta, PA, and urged the NRC to exclude Region 1 personnel from participating in the government agency's investigations. It was alleged that Region 1 has a history of ignoring warnings from security officers (see Power Market Today, Oct. 1). The accusations are related to reports of sleeping contract security guards at Peach Bottom (see Power Market Today, Sept. 26).

Follow-up inspection, IG investigation of Peach Bottom security under way, Inside NRC (by Platts), by Steven Dolley and Daniel Horner, November 12, 2007.
… In a September 28 letter to NRC Chairman Dale Klein, POGO Executive Director Danielle Brian said that NRC's Region I office "has repeatedly ignored such warnings [of inattentive guards] from security officers," and suggested that "Region I and the NRC Resident Inspector should not be involved in any way in this investigation. In fact, I believe they should be the target of an NRC Inspector General investigation," she said. Brian said in the letter that POGO had been "in touch with the IG" about the matter. OIG investigators have been at Peach Bottom for three weeks, Mulley said last week. "Now we're all over it," he said, but one question OIG is exploring is "Why did it take so long?" NRC received an allegation in March about Wackenhut security guards at Peach Bottom working excessive hours and falling asleep while on duty. Region I was unable to substantiate the allegation until Beal came forward with his video footage (INRC, 1 Oct., 1). … Brian of POGO said October 31 that Exelon's decision not to hire Beal "is the stupidest thing they could have done. Now, they'll ensure no one else will be brave enough to come forward and try to fix problems." Wachtel said last week that Beal is considering possible legal action against Exelon Nuclear, and feels that "we have a good case" that the company's decision not to hire Beal was "retaliation" for his whistleblowing activities. NRC's Sheehan said that the issue of possible retaliation against Beal "will be addressed" in the agency's ongoing reviews. Possible discrimination against whistleblowers is an "issue that's always of great concern to us," Sheehan said.

Jaczko calls for changes in process for responding to allegations, Inside NRC (by Platts), by Daniel Horner, November 12, 2007.
Commissioner Gregory Jaczko is pushing for NRC to change the way it handles allegations and interacts with allegers and their employers. In an October 30 speech in Cambridge, Maryland, Jaczko praised the allegations program but said he planned to offer a three-part proposal for improving it. He also said he planned to send a memorandum to the other commissioners proposing a new policy statement on safety culture. The spark for the planned efforts, he said in a November 7 interview, was the recent developments at Peach Bottom, where a security officer videotaped his sleeping colleagues. The video confirmed allegations that a whistleblower had previously made to NRC but that the agency had been unable to substantiate. … Danielle Brian, the executive director of the Project on Government Oversight, praised Jaczko's speech — in large part, she s aid, because his proposals are similar to ones that POGO, a group that works on nuclear security and other "government accountability" issues, has offered. In a November 6 posting on POGO's blog, she said Jaczko's recommendations "all sound so common sense that those not familiar with nuclear regulatory policy might yawn and ask, 'What's the big deal?'" However, she said, "nuclear power plant security has been so controlled by industry that even these small steps in the right direction, if implemented, will make a big difference."

Letter to NRC Region I Administrator Samuel Collins from Union of Concerned Scientist (UCS) Director of Nuclear Safety David Lochbaum regarding lack of prompt compensatory measures at Peach Bottom Nuclear Power Plant, November 9, 2007 (Note: this is a UCS document, not POGO work product).

Peach Bottom whistle-blower fired, by Matthew Santoni, The Examiner, November 1, 2007.
The whistle-blower who taped his fellow guards sleeping on the job at the Peach Bottom nuclear power plant was fired, prompting anger from government watchdogs who say he should have been a hero. Kerry Beal, who secretly videotaped guards sleeping near