The Federal Protective Forces (also known as "FPF", "Protective Forces" or "ProFor") are paramilitary forces of the United States Department of Energy (DOE) responsible for the protection of Category I special nuclear material. Though officially classified as security police, they have limited law enforcement authority and are, instead, equipped and trained to respond to serious incidents at Department of Energy facilities by armed adversaries and to reacquire stolen nuclear material. The FPFs have been described, by the DOE, as "elite fighting forces" designed to operate in "combat environments".
Video Federal Protective Forces
Background
The Federal Protective Forces are responsible for defending Department of Energy sites at which Category I special material is stored. This generally includes uranium-235, uranium-233, and plutonium-239 in certain formulations. Under the provisions of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, Protective Forces personnel have been granted limited arrest authority; they may make probable cause arrests while on-duty and for a specific series of federal crimes related to nuclear material and government property.
The Federal Protective Forces are heavily-armed, which is reflective of the anticipated capabilities of an adversary likely to attempt an assault against a Category I material-holding site. The current hypothetical adversary against which Protective Forces prepare is described in a 2004 Design Basis Threat (DBT) issued by the Department of Energy. Though the DBT is classified, the hypothetical adversary has been generally described as a "larger" force that would seek to overrun the defenses of a DOE facility in order to capture Category I special material. Department of Energy studies have indicated that up to 50 percent of a Protective Forces detachment would be killed responding to some variations of the threat envisaged. The size of individual Protective Forces detachments ranged, in 2007, from between 233 and 533 personnel per protected site.
Maps Federal Protective Forces
Operations
Organization
The Protective Forces are recruited and employed by private companies, yet are trained, equipped, and under the operational command of Defense Nuclear Security, a program of the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration (two Protective Forces, those at the Savannah River Site and the Idaho National Laboratory, are under the control of the DOE's Office of Environmental Management). Each Department of Energy site housing a Protective Forces contingent contracts with a different company for manpower.
Protective Forces are sited at eight Department of Energy facilities:
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