Video of Sleeping Guards Shakes Nuclear Industry

Despite the problems, in June Wackenhut was awarded contracts worth $549 million to protect the Y-12 National Security Complex and the Energy Department's Oak Ridge facility for another five years. But a spokeswoman for the IG said the Energy Department "is considering doing a feasibility study of federalizing the guard force at Y-12."

The heightened crisis for Wackenhut's nuclear operations comes just as the head of that unit, Wilson, has been trying to change the industry's approach to security and improve Wackenhut operations. A former member of the Army's 75th Ranger Regiment, he joined the company in 2004 and took over the nuclear security unit about a year ago. He has made the rounds of company critics and watchdog groups in Washington.

Wilson said the nuclear industry improved operating safety procedures after the accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania in 1979, but that the industry has not taken similar steps on security procedures since the 2001 terrorist attacks. The size of security staff at nuclear power plants has more than doubled as a portion of total staffing, yet low pay makes it "difficult to attract the right staff and leadership talent." He said corporate investment in the area was "inadequate."

Exelon's Rowe said, however, that "it's hard to say you're overusing people when the reason they went to sleep is that they had nothing to do."

"All companies, from time to time, have employees who do not perform up to standards. When this occurs, we address the problem," Wilson said in a Nov. 15 letter protesting an editorial cartoon in the Miami Herald about the sleeping guards. "While others mock and belittle our employees for the actions of a few, I applaud them for their hard work."

Wilson proposed expanded training and re-training programs and college-level offerings for guards. He also favored the introduction of devices similar to those carried by firefighters; if the device detects no movement for a given period of time, it would page itself, and if a worker does not answer promptly, other security guards would be dispatched to investigate.

"Eric has good ideas and comes across as sincere in wanting to implement them," said the Union of Concerned Scientists' Lochbaum, who has met Wilson twice. "I'm not sure he will have the time he needs to make it happen. Because Wackenhut treated its guards so badly for so long, many have lost trust in the company and view Eric's talk as just that."