France to evaluate nuclear sub security after embarrassing revelations

The French Defence Ministry is to evaluate security at a key nuclear submarine base in the north of the country after media revelations that the sensitive site was badly guarded and could be easily targeted by terrorist attack, security sources said Tuesday. Defence Ministry sources said that a report in the local media "Le Telegramme de Brest" was being taken seriously and Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian had called for an immediate investigation into the critical media report. Brest, where the daily newspaper is located, is a major French naval base and the nuclear submarine facility is located nearby on a small islet, where France's four nuclear attack subs are based. The four submarines constitute the bulk of France's nuclear deterrent as the government several years ago dismantled its land-based, long-range system previously located on the Albion Plateau in south-central France. The four nuclear subs, commonly known as "Boomers", are each equipped with 16 inter-continental ballistic missiles, known as SLBMs (submarine launched ballistic missiles) and these would constitute a massive threat if they fell into the wrong hands. The firepower of just one sub is equal to 960 times the nuclear explosion in Hiroshima in 1945, the report indicated. "Le Telgramme" said in its critical report that access controls to the base were extremely weak and passes to the base could be easily falsified and did not even use biometric identification systems commonly used at most airports today. There is no traceability on the badges on exiting the facility or logging of previous visits and the magnetic strip is easy to duplicate, the report said. The newspaper added that civilian workers upgrading the base have been able to get their trucks in with just a piece of paper and that contents of trucks entering the area are not checked. "A child of 12 could reproduce it (the paper)," the media claimed. It was also pointed out that there was no scanner system or other detection system in place for vehicles which could ostensibly be transporting large quantities of explosives. "Le Telgramme" also warned that this "fortress on paper" was too easily accessible to internet enquiries and too much information about the site was available to the public. There are 40 civilian guards at the site, backed up by 115 Gendarmes and 230 Navy Marines, but the problems are not here, "Le Telegramme" said. The problem is the ease of access and lack of controls at the entrance and also the demoded system of identification for people entering.