Kansas to let nuclear plant guards “shoot to kill”

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius
signed a bill on Wednesday authorizing security guards to shoot
to kill to protect the state’s lone nuclear power plant.

“There’s no doubt that nuclear facilities are a potential
target for terrorists,” said Sebelius in a press statement.
“Kansas has one nuclear plant, Wolf Creek, and we must make
sure it’s properly protected. Allowing guards to use deadly
force in certain circumstances increases the security of the
plant, and of our state,” said Sebelius.

The law is called the “Nuclear Generating Facility Security
Guard Act.”

Texas and Arizona have similar laws and the Kansas measure
grew out of the legislature’s joint committee on campus
security, according to the Kansas governor’s office.

The Wolf Creek nuclear power station generates 1,200
megawatts of electricity, which can power about 1 million
homes.

A spokesman at the governor’s office was not able to say
whether there had been attacks on the Wolf Creek plant since it
began operation in 1985 in Burlington in Coffey County, about
100 miles southwest of Kansas City.