California and New York have some of the strictest gun laws in the entire nation. Which can make it hard to get your hands on the most serious kinds of firepower if you’re in the private security business.

And so those who hold vigil at America’s nuclear power plants, in America’s most densely populated areas, have had to seek state exemptions from such laws in order to protect these facilities from those who might do them harm.

This is precarious in more ways than one. While San Onofre and Diablo Canyon nuclear generating stations have had California Department of Justice exemptions from state gun laws for more than a decade – allowing them to employ the sorts of weaponry and ammunition otherwise verboten among non-police or military types in the Golden State – the patchwork quilt of firearm regulations and exemptions around the nation caused some concern among the feds.

“(C)ertain states had enacted weapons restrictions that might affect or limit the ability of nuclear plant guard forces to use weapons they already had,” said the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s David McIntyre by email. “Therefore SONGS and Diablo needed a state exemption. Congress in 2005 felt it would be better to have the weapons authority on a consistent federal level. However, as you can imagine, it is no simple deal for the federal govt to pre-empt state laws, so there were several steps we had to go through to implement this.”

Gears ground for years, and on Wednesday, the NRC used its new powers, granting “pre-emption authority” to San Onofre and Diablo Canyon in California, and to the Indian Point, James A. FitzPatrick, Nine Mile Point and R.E. Ginna nuclear power plants in New York.

It allows these plants’ security forces to possess and use weapons despite local, state or federal laws and regulations restricting their use.

“So today’s action is the final step in that process,” McIntyre said. “Does it really change anything – in terms of boosting plant security? No, because we are not authorizing the guards to boost their armories or capabilities. But it does put their current security posture on a more stable legal footing. State exemptions, after all, can be revoked.”

Pre-emption authority also is consistent with the principle that the NRC is the federal regulatory authority responsible for the safety and security of commercial nuclear power plants, he said.

So one might breathe a bit easier. Or not.

The details of nuclear plants security plans are secret, as it would make little sense to detail for potential ne’erdowells precisely what they entail. But that secrecy tends to make those already critical of nuclear power more suspicious.

Folks like Roger Johnson of San Clemente, who worries about truck bombs outside the security perimeter and blocked highways in the event of an emergency. Forget military-style weapons: He wants to see surface-to-air missiles and the ability to shoot down drones. San Onofre is in arguably better shape than many, being located on the Camp Pendleton Marine base, but Johnson predicts that the military would be “in mass evacuation mode” and unlikely to send helicopters into a plume of radiation in the event of a major attack.

The NRC, and Southern California Edison, San Onofre’s operator, say the plants are safe, secure and poised to deal with threats.

But most everyone agrees that, the sooner the federal government acts on its decades-old promise to permanently dispose of spent fuel from nuclear power plants, the safer everyone will be. Tons upon tons of the stuff has been piling up at nuclear plants nationwide for more than 40 years.

U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein has had this on her to-do list for years, and many wish her better luck pushing something through Congress in 2016.

Meantime, Ted Quinn, a Dana Point resident, past president of the American Nuclear Society, and member the Community Engagement Panel advising Edison on San Onofre’s decommissioning, is not worried.

“I expect and believe that the security force is well trained and maintained as such with equipment necessary to carry out their mission to protect public health and safety,” Quinn said.

Contact the writer: tsforza@ocregister.com