Guards failed to stop a simulated attack at the Savannah River Site conducted in the wake of a security breach at another Department of Energy facility, according to the Project on Government Oversight.
The DOE ordered force-on-force simulations of raids on facilities with weapons-grade nuclear material after three protestors entered the Y-12 site in Tennessee last year. A government source told POGO that during at least one simulation at SRS in January, mock commandos reached simulated bomb material at the site's H-Canyon. The Washington-based non-profit was also critical of how the drills were conducted, writing that simulations were paused for a shift change and bad weather.
Details, such as the number of attack simulations conducted, were limited, and the DOE has said little about them. But the results were apparently serious enough to justify a sharp cut in the fee paid to security contractor WSI-SRS. It received $2.1 million for the first half of 2013. That is 79 percent of its available contract award, compared to 97 percent awarded in the second half of 2012 and 96 percent in the first half of that year, according to a POGO announcement last week.
The company is a subsidiary of G4S, formerly known as Wackenhut. Another G4S subsidiary was relieved of its security contract at Y-12 following the breach there last year.