Watch now: Hawkins to target trespassers at old Phipps Bend nuclear reactor facility

SURGOINSVILLE — Vandals and trespassers who have been visiting the abandoned nuclear reactor at the Phipps Bend Industrial Park my soon find themselves facing jail time and hefty fines.Trespassing has been a problem at the site since the Phipps Bend nuclear plant was canceled 40 years ago, but Hawkins County Industrial Board Chairman Larry Elkins said it's now becoming an almost nightly occurrence.The facility is surrounded by security fence topped with barbed wire, and in 2017 the IDB sealed up a main entrance to the reactor structure with a large metal bay door.Elkins noted, however, that vandals have cut a hole in the security fence and torn down the large bay door to gain entry into the structure.That bay can't be blocked permanently, however, because if somebody got in and was injured or lost, that's the only entrance large enough to allow rescue equipment into the structure.The structure is extremely dangerous, Elkins noted.It's just the shell concrete structure for a nuclear reactor, so there are numerous pits and holes where pipes and conduit would have been located, as well as large drop-offs where the reactor equipment would have been installed.Certain areas of the reactor are pitch black, even in the middle of the day, and the structure has become the home of thousands of endangered bats.Elkins told the IDB on Thursday that the sheriff's office has looked over the facility and will be making some security recommendations. He said a cost estimate to implement those security measures should be available in time for the July IDB meeting.Video surveillance cameras have been installed in the area where the trespassers cut a hole in the fence, and they're showing activity at the reactor on almost a nightly basis.Elkins noted that it's not the same people every night."We've got regular visitors coming in every day and every night," Elkins said. "We've got signs up all over the place that say it's a restricted area, no trespassing. We need to get some new signage. Larger signage. We just want to make everybody aware that if they are caught trespassing, they will be prosecuted."Elkins added, "Somebody's going to get killed in that place. There's holes in there that you could fall into, and we never would get you out. It seems to be a lot of young people, and you know how young people think. They don't see the danger of it."The sheriff's office is expected to be spending more time patrolling the area until new security measures are put in place."I suspect that if we arrest a few people and put them in jail, or fine them heavily, they'll think twice about going in the place," Elkins said. It may take that before they decide they don't need to do this anymore, and find a place on the river to party or do whatever they do."