The biggest threat of all

Nov 25, 2002

Almost every week, the government seems to issue new terrorist alerts, color coded yellow, orange or red. And according to the government, nuclear power plants are most at risk from terrorist attacks.

So, with great fanfare, the government issued beefed up guidelines for added security at nuclear power plants – and then stepped aside while the owners of the plants forced guards to work 12 hours a day, six days per week – mandatory!

It's obvious that heavy overtime, month after month, makes it humanly impossible for anyone to do a decent job – not to speak of prevent a nuclear holocaust.

It's equally obvious that neither the government nor the nuclear power industry took their own propaganda seriously – not about potential terrorist threats nor about the safe operation of the nuclear power plants.

Unfortunately, scheduling heavy overtime at nuclear power plants is not something unusual. And not just for guards. It is one more indication that the biggest danger of one of these nuclear power plants exploding has never come from terrorists, but from the way the owners of these power plants have always run them – by overworking their entire staff and cutting corners everywhere.

Working people have no reason to listen to these people – for whom what counts is only one thing: the "security" of corporate profits.