CHAPTER 34
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The winter sun had set hours ago, leaving a darkness extending far out over the vast expanse of water, the tips of the barely visible wave tops white against the blackness of the sky.? A light breeze was blowing off the ocean, carrying with it the pungent smell of seawater and decaying marine life, as the surf lapped relentlessly against the massive concrete breakwater pilings.
As Marti walked down the hallway of the administration building to meet with the vice president, she saw the security manager leave his office and head toward the elevators.? She ducked down a short hall, careful to stay out of his line of sight.? Seeing him right now only added to the anxiety she was feeling since her recent phone conversation.? He seemed lost in thought and thankfully didn't notice her. ?She felt a little foolish for trying to hide and shrugged it off as she continued to the VP's office.? But the admin building, normally a beehive of activity during the day, was deserted now, and the quiet gave it an eerie feeling. ?An irrational fear caused the hair on her arms to stand up, as she quickened her pace down the hall.
Entering management row, she saw Prichard's door open and a soft, inviting light extending out into the hall.? Without announcing herself or waiting for an invitation to enter, she went in, closing the door behind her.?
Prichard looked up from the computer on his large mahogany desk.? "Marti!? I wasn't sure you'd still be here, but I'm glad you stopped by."?
He could see that Marti was breathless and didn't know why, but her face was pale, and for a moment she looked vulnerable, in an attractive way, and he let his mind drift off to unspoken possibilities.
"What's up?" he asked casually.? His ability to stay calm generally worked to his advantage when his subordinates came to him with bad news regarding the plant.? Even though Marti didn't work for him directly, he adopted that posture naturally.
She stood in front of Prichard's desk, choosing not to sit down, looking at him and then around the office, unwilling to hold eye contact with him.? Something about the way he was looking at her gave her the shivers.? She assumed it was the combination of events so far that had an unnerving effect on her.
?"Nick suggested I hang close to the site and keep in touch with the FBI and NRC.? He thought they'd be more likely to talk to me using the secure terminal equipment phone, instead of an unsecured line.? Turns out he was right."
She took a deep breath to steady herself, and then continued. "The FBI has reason to believe the whole story being circulated by the anti-nuclear community about the safety of nuclear power is a ruse.? The Bureau is getting some intel that the Chinese are positioning themselves to begin buying parts from nuclear plants in the US."
Prichard had previously met with the Chinese as part of a US nuclear trade delegation.? Senior nuclear industry executives frequently did this so they could make sure their companies were up to speed on emerging world markets.? It also helped the federal trade delegation with real-world experience in specific areas-in this case, commercial nuclear power.? Since meeting with the Chinese a year ago, Prichard and his staff discovered that the Chinese had inserted virus programs in the US envoy's computers and phones and were blatantly trying to steal trade secrets.? It got to the point that when the US representatives traveled they would use stand-alone laptops with only the minimum amount of information on them, and ones that were not connected in any way to a US local area network.? When they got back to the States, the computers were wiped clean and reprogrammed.? Cell phones were temporary ones, which were disposed of when they returned.? This was the only way the US had to prevent the Chinese from stealing technology.? So it wasn't surprising to Prichard when Marti suggested that the Chinese might be involved in something related to this threat.? In fact, that's why he warned Nick of the possibility.?
"What's the FBI's take on all this?" he asked.
Marti crossed her arms in front of her before she replied, "They believe the Chinese are funding destabilization efforts of the commercial nuclear industry and see this threat, if carried out, as a way to do that.? Again, they believe the threat is real.? It would be cheaper for the Chinese to buy parts from us if plants like The Headlands were shut down and not allowed to start back up."
Prichard leaned back in his chair.? "If the FBI believes that, then why don't the feds move in and shut them down?"
"They have no proof.? Not yet, anyway," Marti said.
"So what do they want us to do in the meantime?"
Marti knew what she was about to say next would not be received well.? Even she thought it was a stretch.? "They want you to stop the outage preps, stay at power, lock down the site, and get all non-essential personnel off site.? They want to sweep the plant for explosive devices and put a ribbon of steel around this place."?
"You're kidding, right?"? He knew it made sense from their perspective and was consistent with the briefings he'd had with the NRC on plant safety.? But he had a business to run.? From that perspective, it was a stupid idea.? "We're going to have to shut down sooner or later.? You-the NRC-know that.? We're getting ready for our coast down period that we always do prior to refueling the core.? We're running out of fuel.? We can't keep a plant like this running indefinitely.? How long do they think this is going to take?"
Marti dropped her arms, moved to one of the chairs and sat down; more from exhaustion than from relaxation.? She leaned back and crossed her legs.? She noticed that Prichard's gaze shifted to her legs and then quickly back to her eyes.?
"Minimum of three weeks to sweep the plant and recheck all the outage personnel.? The NRC knows you're in the process of lowering power to maximize your burn-up of the fuel.? We're asking that you delay that as long as possible."
"It's not that simple.? Delaying the coast-down will cause us to skew our power profile."? Prichard had been through license class and had been trained in core physics.? He knew that burning the fuel at higher power for a longer period of time would build in more poisons that would make it much harder to start back up after the outage.? They only replaced 1/3 of the core with new fuel.? The rest was existing fuel that they put back in.? So burning it longer now would affect their ability to bring the unit back on line.? "That could affect our core re-load.? I'd have to run that by engineering before I'd agree to anything.? Wouldn't it be safer if we just shut down?"
Marti knew it wasn't that simple too but she had her instructions.? "Not necessarily.? The Commissioners have reason to believe that the plant may already be compromised and that shutting down might risk triggering an event that would cause more harm than good.? That's why they want you to minimize load changes and allow them to sweep the plant while it's at steady-state power."
Prichard looked out the window into the darkness outside, though there was nothing to see.? "I could maybe give you three days, but certainly not three weeks.? I assume they have a plan, correct?" thinking of Nick, wondering how he was going to get this information to him.
"Yes.? They'll be on site tomorrow morning to start locking it down.? They figure it's a Saturday and the fewest number of employees will be on site."
"Tomorrow?"? Prichard could feel control of the situation slipping away from him.? "I'll have to let corporate headquarters know what's going on.? And I'll have to let our security people know so they can prepare for this.? Rob Ellingson was just here.? I'll brief him after you leave."
Marti looked at him now and held his gaze. "I'm sorry sir, you can't do that."
"And why is that?" Prichard bristled.? "Of course I'm going to tell him!? He's my security manager."
Marti lowered her voice,? "The FBI believes Rob may be the insider."
Prichard's heart started to race.? He leaned forward in his chair, trying to absorb this information, not wanting to believe it.
"I've known Rob for years!? I got him his position!? Why would he do this?"
"Motive is usually money, but we don't know for sure."
Prichard wasn't convinced yet.? "What do they have that makes them think its Rob?? I don't want to
hear about 'they've got a psychological profile on him'.? You're going to need something more concrete before I'll believe this about Rob!"
Marti took note that he now considered her on the 'other side'.? She calmly said, "The FBI was able to trace some cell phone traffic to his phone on site.? The cell phone belongs to a man named Jansen.? This is the same guy who Nick says he saw in town the other day.? The FBI has quite a file on this guy."
Prichard didn't know what to say, this news catching him completely off guard.? It sounded like damning and persuasive evidence of wrongdoing.
"One more thing you should know," Marti continued.?"Jansen has been keeping company with a guy named Stone, who rented a car in LA recently and then disappeared.? The FBI is looking for him, but so far, no luck."
Even though he was a large black man, Marti thought she could see the blood drain from Prichard's face. "What is it?" she asked.? "Are you feeling all right?"
Prichard had a distant stare.? "Nick asked me to look at shift staffing to see if there was anything unusual."
"So?"
"The shift manager scheduled for tonight called in sick and was replaced by Dave Street."
Marti didn't see the issue.? "How does that connect to this?"
"The shift manager runs this place.? He has knowledge and access to whatever he wants.? He's key to the safe operation of this facility."
"I know all that, but I still don't see . . . "
Prichard cut her off by jumping out of his chair.? He leaned on the desk with his large palms down.?
"His wife and two children are down in LA at Disneyland!"