Russia sends troops to nuclear plants

Russia has deployed extra troops to guard dozens of nuclear facilities across the country in response to recent militant activity…

Russia has deployed extra troops to guard dozens of nuclear facilities across the country in response to recent militant activity including the taking of  hostages at a a school in the south of the country.

Russia, the world's second largest atomic power after the United States, has come under international pressure to do more to protect its Soviet-era nuclear facilities against attack.

"After the latest terrorist attacks security services decided to send more interior ministry troops to all nuclear sites across the country," a Russian Atomic Energy Agency spokesman said.

He would not say how many additional troops were sent.

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He said the government extended the order right after militants seized a school near rebel Chechnya, taking up to 150 people hostage, and a suicide bomb attack in central Moscow which killed at least nine people.

Russia runs dozens of atomic reactors, uranium enrichment facilities and nuclear research reactors - some in the far-flung corners of Siberia and which are poorly guarded.