The Knuckleheads of the Day award

You think I ran out after yesterday's marathon?

No I didn't. Today's winners are Florida Power and Light(FPL) and Wackenhut Nuclear Services. They get the award for the following.

Security guards at Florida Power & Light's Turkey Point nuclear power plant slept on the job, or covered for snoozing colleagues, on a number of occasions from 2004 to 2006, federal regulators said Tuesday.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, in letters sent to FPL and Wackenhut Nuclear Services, said its investigators had ``substantiated that security officers were willfully inattentive to duty or served as look-outs such that other security officers could be inattentive while on duty.''

The naps have been classified as ''apparent violations'' until FPL and Wackenhut, which provides security for FPL's nuclear plants at Turkey Point in Miami-Dade County and in St. Lucie County, can formally respond to the investigation.

Roger Hannah, a spokesman for the NRC's regional office in Atlanta, said the agency takes security concerns ``very seriously.''

Dozing guards have become a hot-button issue for the industry in recent months. Turkey Point is the third case the NRC has made public since a whistle-blowing guard earlier this year caught fellow Wackenhut officers on videotape sleeping at a Pennsylvania nuclear plant.

But, Hannah stressed, ``we don't have a problem with security now at Turkey Point. This is something that appears to have been addressed by the licensee.''

That doesn't let these companies off the hook though. A nuclear power plant is a prime target for tourists. The need for guards being awake should be obvious. Maybe FPL should find another company to supply these people, but don't hire this firm. Those guards won't sleep on the job, they'll just wash their cars instead.

For not taking nuclear safety seriously, FPL and Wackenhut Nuclear Services are today's Knuckleheads of the Day.

Linked to- Adam, Blue Star, Bright & Early, Jo, Leaning Straight Up, Morewhat, Right Wing Nation, Rosemary, Samantha Burns, Stop the ACLU, Third World County, Woman Honor Thyself, The World According to Carl, Yankee Sailor,