WASHINGTON -- Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge and other administration officials announced a range of measures designed to calm a jittery public, but the anthrax scare and warnings about the possibility of an attack against one of the nation's largest nuclear power plants, later discredited, kept the nation on edge.
A U.S. national security official said a warning about the possibility of an attack against the Three Mile Island nuclear plant was received Wednesday by the Central Intelligence Agency from an intelligence service in Western Europe that the official wouldn't identify. Because the source was a "friendly" government, the official said, the CIA deemed the threat credible and the White House ordered the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which oversees the nation's nuclear plants, to warn the facility about a possible attack.
That possibility was discounted, however, when the CIA learned that the warning was the "personal" assessment of an analyst at the foreign intelligence service who thought the plant might be a target. No actual intelligence information pointed to it being targeted, the official said, so the warning was withdrawn.
Still, the Federal Aviation Administration banned all air traffic within a 20-mile radius of the plant, forcing two nearby airports to close for several hours. At the FAA's request, military aircraft were deployed to patrol the airspace near the plant. Both airports reopened early Thursday and the military aircraft have ceased their patrols, though defense officials said the planes could be scrambled again within minutes.
"All I can say is that we were informed this morning by the intelligence community that the threat was no longer considered credible," said Beth Hayden, a spokeswoman for the NRC.
All 103 commercial nuclear reactors in the U.S., among the most closely guarded facilities in the country, have been on even higher alert since last month's terrorist attacks.
Officials have declined to detail those plans, but many plants say they have sharply reduced the number of people with access to the plants and have stepped up patrols by state police, National Guard troops and private security businesses. In addition, the Coast Guard is enforcing new rules barring boats from the waters near any nuclear plants.
Fears about the safety of the nation's nuclear plants prompted the NRC to shut down its Web site last week at the request of the Defense Department, which worried that the site carried information that could aid terrorists in planning any attacks. The NRC reopened the site Thursday, but the agency purged such information as the precise location of nuclear plants nationwide and detailed descriptions of some of the plants' systems.
Utilities around the country have stepped up security around their power plants since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Utility officials say the nation's electricity system is too big to be fully protected from willful attack. Utilities require that enough power be standing by to make up for the sudden loss of the largest power plant or transmission line serving any major city in their region. So far, electric industry officials say they haven't been hit with anything more than the normal problems of isolated acts of vandalism and the usual number of would-be computer hackers. "There have been no instances at any of our facilities and I haven't heard of others elsewhere," says Jim Donnell, head of Duke Energy North America, a unit of Duke Energy Corp., of Charlotte, N.C., a big power-plant operator.
The possibility of an attack at a nuclear plant further rattled a public already reeling from fears of large-scale bioterrorism. Speaking in Washington, Mr. Ridge said the government gets "more vigilant every day" about bioterrorism and adamantly denied that the government's focus on the potential anthrax attacks was leaving the nation open to other types of terrorism. "Our antennae are up for all conceivable risks," he said.
Mr. Ridge said he was informed of the threat to Three Mile Island late Wednesday by his successor as governor of Pennsylvania, Mark Schweiker, and also held several conversations with the FAA and other agencies. Mr. Ridge said he didn't order the FAA's responses, but agreed with the agency's assessment of the threat. "It was significant enough to warrant the action that was taken," he said.
Speaking to reporters for the first time since taking office last week, Mr. Ridge conceded the administration needed to do a better job communicating with the public. "There were some mixed messages," he said. "You didn't have a central voice."
Mr. Ridge also waded into one of the hottest political debates of the day, suggesting that he wasn't opposed to proposals to make the nation's 18,000 airport-security screeners federal employees, though he said it was more important for the government first to develop uniform standards for screeners. The Senate has passed legislation federalizing the workers, but the administration and the House have opposed the move.
Mr. Ridge tried to deflect criticism of his new post, which doesn't give him budgetary authority over the dozens of counterterrorism agencies he is supposed to oversee. Mr. Ridge said he opposed legislation giving his office more authority "because I don't need it," citing what he called his almost unparalleled access to the president. Mr. Ridge is one of the few members of the administration who can see the president without an appointment, and the president has ordered the cabinet to cooperate fully with Mr. Ridge.
-- Rebecca Smith and David Cloud contributed to this article.
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