TVA mum on Watts Bar Nuclear Plant shooting details

[bananas]

Source: Chattanooga Times Free Press

Mystery still surrounds a TVA security officer's report of a gunfight with an intruder in the middle of the night near Watts Bar Nuclear Plant.

Authorities continue to investigate, and the FBI's Ed Galloway, head of this region's investigative office, has declined to talk about the findings so far.

<snip>

Nuclear Regulatory Commission records show that shootings at the nation's nuclear power plants are rare. Only a couple of others have been reported -- one in 1998, and another 10 years earlier.

Both involved reports of security officers being fired on, and both turned out to be false reports. In each case the security officers had fired a shot while fooling around and then made up the stories of intruders to cover their misfires.

<snip>

Read more: http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2013/apr/25/tva-mum-on-shooting-details/

[bananas]

1. April 21: TVA lockdown following security officer shooting at Watts Bar Nuclear Plant

TV news video at the link:

http://www.wate.com/story/22034179/security-guard-fired-upon-at-nuclear-plant

TVA lockdown following security officer shooting at Watts Bar Nuclear Plant
Posted: Apr 21, 2013 5:53 AM PDT

By HAYLEY HARMON
6 News Anchor/Reporter

SPRING CITY (WATE) - Authorities are searching for the person who fired multiple gunshots at a TVA security guard early Sunday morning at the Watts Bar Nuclear Plant in Rhea County.

The shooting forced TVA officials to declare a security emergency at the plant, placing it on immediate lockdown.

TVA says the Watts Bar security officer was on his routine patrol just before 2 a.m., monitoring plant property that borders the Tennessee River, when he noticed a boat in the water at the bottom of a boat ramp that leads up to the plant.

It was after he confronted him that officials say the boater shot multiple times at the officer, who then fired back and called for backup.

<snip>

[Poll_Blind]

2. Interesting. nt

PB

[OldRedneck]

3. Five possibilities:

1. A nuclear energy protester. They have been especially active at the Y-12 plant in Oak Ridge, TN. Probably not as most of them are nuns.

2. A guard shooting himself in the foot.

3. One of the Houston clan. Rocky and Leon are in the slammer, so, could have been another of the knuckledragging, mouth-breathing Houston's. Not familiar with them? Gooogle Rocky and Leon Houston, Roane County, TN.

4. An anti-guvmint clown. East Tennessee is full of 'em.

5. Two young rednecks after a night at the Dew Drop Inn, one of the grabs a rifle from behind the seat of his pickup and says "Hold my beer and watch this . . . bet I can hit that 'No Trespassing' sign dead center!!!!"

[bananas]

4. #6: Late night fishing and drinking, goes home to the wrong dock,

thinks the guard is an armed intruder on his property and fires a warning shot to scare him off.

[SkyDaddy7]

5. #7

Could be one or more individuals actually doing some surveillance on the plant or testing how the security works?

[wordpix]

6. whatever happened, these plants are not safe on a number of fronts including

the riverfront

[AtheistCrusader]

7. Dunno...

A guard was there, and did exchange fire (Allegedly) with the intruder.
Doesn't really smack of being unsafe to me.

If some drunken yahoo made it all the way into the control room without being challenged, that would suggest to me a degree of unsafe-ness.

[RobertEarl]

8. Nukes are not safe

No gunman hit the control room at Fukushima and yet over 160,000 people had to leave their homes. Two years later those innocent people still can't go back and stay. Their homes and cities are left to crumble.

Just imagine what would happen if someone did, on purpose, blow up a nuke plant. It would be like WW3. Ticking time bombs is what they are. Pressure cookers just waiting for the right moment.

[AtheistCrusader]

9. Big-picture wise, I agree.

Just didn't seem accurate in that specific vector comment. Allegedly someone messed with it via the waterfront, and allegedly that person was challenged. Seems ok on that score.

I agree with the rest of the bigger picture risks. All energy producing systems are dangerous, even dams. Reactors seem to have quite a lot of risk beyond any other system, so, we should be more circumspect about building them, or even keeping the fleet we have.

[SkyDaddy7]

10. Exactly!!

We must protect the plants on the riverfront & on the plants on the porch front!