Reactor security

Fingerprinting and criminal background checks are now required to gain unescorted access to US research and test reactors. Most of the 33 such reactors are operated by universities, with a few at company and government labs. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) announced the tightened security measures on 1 May.

Similar measures were already in force for power reactors, but security at reactors used for educational purposes had been less strict.

The new order affects only people who need access to critical areas, mainly staff who operate the reactor or deal with its fuel, says David Moncton, director of MIT’s nuclear research reactor—one of a handful in the country that still use highly enriched uranium. Students and others will still have access to the “experimental floor and other places where experimenters are allowed to go,” he says. The order presents “no significant burden,” he adds. “And to the extent that it does, it’s an increase in security—maybe marginal, because, at least at MIT, we were already very secure.”

The move is in accord with the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and “is one of many steps the NRC has taken in the aftermath of September 11, 2001, to keep US research reactors secure,” NRC chairman Dale Klein said in a press statement.