UW-Madison's nuclear reactor may be a target for terrorists, according to a breaking ABC news investigation set to run tonight on \Primetime.""
Over four months, ABC sent 10 Carnegie Fellows to 25 university nuclear reactors across America, including UW-Madison, University of Florida, Ohio State, MIT and Texas A&M. The investigation found potentially dangerous breaches of security protocol at campus reactors.
ABC reported the students, posing as tourists, were allowed access to nuclear reactors without showing ID or even passing through metal detectors in some cases. The students were allowed into control rooms and nuclear pool rooms, often encountering unlocked doors and reactor guards sleeping at their posts.
The findings have spurred an investigation by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the body that oversees campus nuclear reactors. ""The NRC will not hesitate to take strong enforcement action should we find a violation,"" said NRC Public Affairs Director Eliot B. Brenner.
University research reactors are not regulated as strictly as those used for power, according to former White House advisor Matthew Bunn. Some in the U.S. Congress maintain that the lack of regulations is a shortcoming of the NRC. With lax security standards, campus nuclear reactors such as the one at UW-Madison may present an opportunity for suicide bombers, according to U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., Head of the House Government Committee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations.
ABC's findings have spurred a national campaign to tighten university nuclear security and the full investigation will air on ABC tonight at 9 p.m.
