Security staff "in the zone" as DEP officials conduct an unannounced inspection...

In events that wouldn't sound out of place in a Simpsons episode, the US governing board, Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), today issued a press release questioning the videogame habits of a nuclear power plant staging post officer whilst on the job.

During an unannounced surveillance by the DEP at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania, the official safety staff member continually went unnoticed as he approached the post. Although the act doesn't break official guidelines, which permit the use of "electronic devices" to stimulate the mind and attention levels, the report has led to the DEP Secretary, Kathleen A. McGinty, calling for changes to procedure.

"The issue is not the guard's use of the video game, because current procedures don't specifically prohibit those games," McGinty said. "The real issue is that his complete absorption in the game distracted him from noticing the repeated approach of our inspector. And that shows why this procedure needs to be changed and these video games disallowed."

The only responsibility of staging post officers is to respond to regular radio checks to confirm they are attentive and able to respond if necessary; something that the guard in question did perform while the DEP official was present.

Following the report, the DEP has promised to work closely with the U.S Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which governs health and safety regulations at all commercial nuclear power plants throughout North America, to review the incident and the policies regarding the use of hand-held electronic devices such as video games.

It's not the first time that the Three Mile Island plant has hit the headlines, suffering a partial core meltdown in 1979; let's just hope that senior staff members aren't allowed to bring their DS' or PSP's to work.