Red North!

by Mark Lemke

CHAPTER 15

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  The road to the plant wound through some scenic areas of protected coastal lands. Nuclear power plants are typically located away from densely populated towns, mostly because local communities really don't like having the plants in their back yards, out of the not so unreasonable fear of being enveloped in a radioactive cloud in the event of an accident.? Because the plants need huge amounts of water for cooling systems, locating them on remote areas of the Pacific coast is ideal.? However, there were always environmental concerns brought up in the licensing process before the huge corporations who own these plants could break ground and begin to build.? This was never more evident than in California, where environmentalists and Hollywood money were abundant.? Frequently, the corporations who owned the plants had to pay millions of dollars to set aside preserves or parks or nature walks, to placate the local townsfolk.? And The Headlands did just that, so that driving up to the power plant had the feel of driving up to a resort.

  When I got to the entrance to the owner-controlled area, I was still a couple miles from the plant site itself.? The only evidence that there was a nuclear plant somewhere in the vicinity was the sign on the restricted road and what looked like a tollbooth or the entrance to a national park, with one security officer inside.? To gain entry, I needed to have a 'car pass' that was issued to all employees, something all too easy to steal from the dashboard of someone's car when it was parked in the Safeway parking lot in town.? If I really wanted to get in and didn't have a pass, it would also be easy enough to just shoot the guard, who was unarmed anyway, and race up the road.? But I knew there was a camera high up on a nearby light pole, transmitting a picture of this access point to the Central Alarm Station; and that if I did try to crash the gate, the security force personnel had a couple of miles of isolated road on which they could intercept me.? With ocean on one side, steep hills with rugged terrain on the other, and several miles off the main highway, this plant was hard to sneak up on. And that was in its favor.? It should have been one of the easier plants to protect, but I knew how to find weaknesses.? The Headlands had them, and I'd found them.

  I chuckled to myself as I thought about shooting the guard and making a run for the plant.? Instead, I put the pass I was issued on the dashboard so the guard could see it, and cruised through the access point slowly, allowing the guard to wave me through.

  Driving up the road, I enjoyed the magnificent scenery as I wound around curves with mountains on one side and the Pacific coastline on the other.? The speed limit on the road was a mere 40 mph, which I knew I could exceed if I had to.? But even I would have to be careful because the road, as it turns out, is perfectly level, with no banking on the curves.? It was built that way to allow large trucks to haul up massive plant components during the construction phase, without danger of the load rolling off the rig.

  Some of the larger components were brought in by barge, to the intake area.? For construction purposes, this all made sense.? From a security perspective, I could envision various scenarios in which these design features could be exploited.? I smiled to myself as I thought about this.? Always working.

  As I rounded the last bend in the road that dead-ends at the 200-acre plant site, the two massive concrete containment domes-so named because they 'contain' the nuclear reactors and were designed to contain the radiation released if there was some kind of accident-came into view.? Seeing them for the first time in the midst of this peaceful seaside landscape was awe-inspiring.? I'd driven this road several times now, but the sight of them still impressed me.? Seven feet thick at the base, with two-inch rebar knitted within it, all lined by a stainless steel plate, they were an engineering marvel and made an imposing sight.? Over two hundred and thirty feet tall, they also make for a very big target if someone wanted to attack from the air-something we learned in New York on what was known as '9/11.'? The difference between these domes and the Twin Towers was that these domes could withstand the impact of a huge jet airliner falling out of the sky.? Such an event might obliterate other parts of the plant, but the containment domes were designed to withstand it, keeping the nuclear reactor safe from damage.

  However, they were really built to withstand pressure from within.? A catastrophic failure of the reactor coolant system piping inside the building would cause thirty-five thousand gallons of water, heated to 550 degrees Fahrenheit under 2,300 pounds of pressure per square inch, to flash instantly if something caused a leak in the system and this hot pressurized water was suddenly released to the atmosphere in containment. ?In theory, this could happen, though the probability of such an event was remotely small.? But because it is a possibility, the containment dome was designed to contain just such an event.? As a result, this made them impervious to outside attack as well.? Still, as the drill I just did so aptly demonstrated, there were still some weak points that made them vulnerable-if you knew where they were and how to exploit them.

  I pulled up to my reserved parking spot in front of the Security Building.? Perks of the job.? It was almost 8 a.m., and most of the plant personnel were already inside, at their desks working, so there was no line to get through the explosives and metal detectors.? But I didn't head for the search trains.? I stepped up to the visitor counter and ask to see the sergeant in charge.? A minute later, a uniformed security sergeant came out and grimaced when he saw it was me again.?

  "'Morning, Sergeant," I said pleasantly and professionally.? By the look on the man's face, I knew I didn't need to say any more.?

  The sergeant came over to the desk, looked at me without any acknowledgment or greeting, and said, "Picture ID."? By now, everyone in the Security Department knew of the drill last night and how it went, and I was probably less popular this morning than I was last night.

  The sergeant looked at my ID for perhaps a moment longer than he needed to.? Making me stand there while he held my ID was about the only measure of control he had over me.? I let him have his moment.? As he handed my ID back, he said loudly, "Fred, let this guy through . . . again!"

  Fred, the armed officer on station just inside the search trains, came over and, with a scowl on his face, opened a pass-through gate reserved for members of the security staff who were armed responders.? Armed responders obviously couldn't make it through the search train with all the metal and ammunition they carried and so were exempted from the rules.? But I was just a visitor and wasn't supposed to be carrying any kind of firearm at all.? Fred didn't bother to ask why he was being instructed to give me access.?

  "Thank you, Sergeant.? Appreciate it," I said as I passed through the gate.? Tucked into my belt in back and under my shirt was a modified 9 mm Glock 19 with a 15-round magazine, night sights, with tape wrapped around the grip.? For a pistol, it was my weapon of choice.? It wasn't generally affected by sand or water and just kept shooting, which was a very likable attribute in a weapon. ?

  Going anywhere unarmed was not an option for me, or at least not a very good idea.? However, bringing weapons of any kind into a nuclear power facility was against the law-a law from which I was being granted an exemption.? This was a condition of the contract I'd negotiated with Prichard. So I went through this little dance with Security each morning.?

  Having bypassed the explosives detectors and the metal detectors once again, I headed over to the turnstiles and swiped my key card on the pad provided.? A soft beep reminded me to insert my right hand onto a laser hand geometry reader.? The security computer checked the shape of my hand against the profile identified by the key card, verified I was who I was supposed to be, and with a click unlocks the portal, allowed me access to the restricted areas of the power plant.

  A few short steps later, I was standing in front of the six-story administration building. With the exception of a three-story parking garage in downtown Willits, the admin building was the tallest structure in the county and was the only building with elevators.? The entire top floor-the sixth-of the admin building was dedicated to nothing but the internal computer
systems that ran the myriad programs used to plan and track maintenance on hundreds of pieces of plant equipment each day.? It tracked the tens of thousands of parts in the warehouse.? It was used for payroll and performance reviews. ?It housed electronic copies of procedures and correspondence without which a nuclear power plant could not run.? And it interfaced with the Dosimetry Department that tracked radiation dose accumulated by plant employees and contractors.? The Headlands had a very sophisticated computer system, ran its own internal local area network (LAN), and was still connected to the outside world and its parent corporation in Sacramento.? For security reasons, access to the computer rooms was restricted to only a few people on site.? However, computer access to the LAN itself, even though somewhat restricted, was available to all plant employees.? That made the possibility of a cyber attack possible-something I intended to mention to Prichard when I got a chance.

  I got off on the fifth floor and headed to the vice president's corner office.? The fifth floor was reserved for management and operations staff, so most departments had a manager on this floor.? The fifth floor was also home to the senior leadership team, which included the site vice president and directors of key line organizations.? At the west end of the floor, behind glass doors, were the offices of the leadership team members and their executive secretaries.? Prichard's office was at one end of 'management row,' as the staff called it.? His office walls had wood paneling, floor-to-ceiling glass windows overlooking the Pacific Ocean, and was just short of opulent, which was unusual considering this was a power plant and not a plush corporate office.? The leather couch and matching chairs were intended to provide a homey feeling for his guests and to reduce-not eliminate-the intimidation one felt when walking into this office.?

  I presented myself to Cathy, the administrative assistant, a pleasant woman who invited me to take a seat near her desk, just outside the vice president's office.? She was efficient and cordial, but it was clear she controlled the space outside the VP's office as well as access to it, and that her invitation to take a seat was nothing short of a subtle command.?

  The door to Prichard's office was open and people were already inside.? I respected the man's position and had no problem waiting to be asked into his office.? Prichard spotted me there even before Cathy could let him know.? Rob, Lynn, Hector, and one other guy I hadn't met yet were already seated.?

  "Nick!? Come on in!" Prichard said as he got up and walked over to greet me.? Prichard was a tall black man, towering over everyone else in the room.? He looked like he used to play basketball for the Los Angeles Lakers.?

  "I think you know everyone except possibly for Dave Street here.? Dave was the shift manager on watch last night for the drill."

  I went over to Dave, and offered him my hand.? "Good morning, sir.? Glad to meet you."?

  Dave got up and gripped my hand in return. "'Morning." He didn't look too happy about being there.? He'd worked all night and probably didn't appreciate the helo fly-by in the drill.?

  "Let's all sit down, shall we?" said Prichard.