New Jersey: "Connors wants more firepower at state N-plants"

[cuchulainn]

As opposed to those single-shot semiautomatic rifles, I suppose

from the News Press of Atlantic City

http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/ocean/042903GUNS.html

Connors wants more firepower at state N-plants

By ANDREW JOHNSON Staff Writer, (609) 978-2012

Semiautomatic rifles that carry multiple rounds, military-type machine guns and people-stopping hollow-point bullets should be exempt from a special state law, which currently bans them, and be part of nuclear power plant security, plant officials, the federal government and area legislators said Monday.

Assault weapons were banned in the Garden State 13 years ago, and only law-enforcement officers are authorized to own and handle high-powered weaponry and ammunition.

"If they're trained and abide by keeping the weapons on-site, I'm for it," Lacey police Capt. William Nally said Monday about guards possibly having access to heavier weaponry.

Concerned by recent security at Lacey Township's Oyster Creek Generating Station, Sen. Leonard T. Connors, R-Ocean, Burlington, Atlantic, believes the timing is right for his bill that would allow the state's four nuclear power plants' guards to bolster their firepower.

"I'd debate it on the floor," Connors said of the bill that has been shelved in the past. "Who would say 'No, we don't need to have adequate support for power plants?'

"We're the only state that can't have these types of weapons.

"Who the hell would ever want to take over a nuclear power plant?" Connors asked rhetorically, saying that current firepower would be like "sling-shots and B.B. guns" in the face of a real terrorist attack.

While disagreeing with that assessment, power plant officials across the state agreed with the senator's proposal to lift the gun restrictions.

"We would be in favor of such a bill, allowing greater flexibility," PSE&G Nuclear spokesman Chic Cannon said.

"We're in favor of it," Exelon Nuclear spokesman Tom Chiomento said. "We supported it last session, and we support it this session."

PSE&G owns three of the four power plants in the state: Hope Creek, Salem 1 and Salem 2.

Exelon operates Oyster Creek, through AmerGen, which is co-owned by British Energy.

Connors said recently that he would like the National Guard and State Police to take over plant security full time, and be reimbursed by the federal government, but he maintained Monday that that remains a long shot.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is against taking over security, claiming that power plants should control security themselves.

Nevertheless, the NRC said Monday that it does back Connor's idea to upgrade weapons capability at New Jersey's plants.

"We're in favor of changes," NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said.

He said that while security employed at the state's plants is adequate, he saw benefits in allowing the plants to access more firepower to ward off possible terrorist attacks.

Sheehan said that the NRC soon will be releasing an updated new "design basis threat" analysis that broached this issue, but did not elaborate.

He mentioned that New Jersey is not alone in reconsidering guards' firepower.

Neighboring New York, whose Indian Point facility is only 30 miles north of Manhattan, last month introduced a bill in its Assembly to allow machine guns and the use of deadly force.

Kicked around politically for the past several years in New Jersey, home to some of the nation's toughest gun laws, PSE&G and Exelon have come out again in support of Connors' bill in recent days.

The state senator said he met with PSE&G officials late last week, after they wrote a letter endorsing his proposal to area legislators.

Exelon said that it meets the NRC's minimum requirement for weapons capability at Oyster Creek, but likes the freedom offered by the senator's bill.

Oyster Creek's guards, contracted out by Florida-based Wackenhut Corporation, carry handguns, and no rifle on the plant's premises is allowed to contain more than 10 bullets.

Exelon spokesman Dave Simon said Monday that the "handguns were similar to those used by local police," and that "long guns," or rifles, were police-issued, and not ones bought over the open market.

Simon said that in the event of an attack of any kind at the plant, additional ammunition is "locked away, and available" on-site.

Exelon security manager Rick Ewart said Monday that the plant conducts its own weapons training at the plant, and if the bill passes, additional training and handling of more powerful guns could take place.

"We would like the latitude," he said of the proposed bill.

If passed, he said that the plant would consider bringing in "things that are currently classified as assault weapons, including semi-automatic shotguns that can carry three rounds of ammunition."

"We certainly support it," Ewart said. "We've been interested."

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