Russia has foiled two separate attempts to attack the country's nuclear facilities in the past and attacks on them have never been successful, underlining satisfactory security at these nuclear installations, a defense official said Wednesday.

"Two single attacks were attempted, but the attempts were quickly suppressed by the facilities' security guards," Col. Gen. Igor Valynkin, head of the Defense Ministry's 12th Main Department tasked with ensuring security of the country's nuclear arsenals, told the Itar-Tass news agency.

The two attempts to penetrate into military nuclear facilities were made in 2002 and 2003, both in the European part of Russia, Valynkin said without elaborating.

Terrorists have never launched a successful attack on Russia's nuclear facilities in the country's history, and there has not been a single case of loss or emergency at these sites in over 50 years, he said.

"This shows the security system at our nuclear facilities is good. It works reliably," said the defense official.

"It is very difficult to stage nuclear terrorist acts at our nuclear facilities, but nobody can say at present that this possibility is 100 percent ruled out," he admitted.

Valynkin pointed to Chechen rebel groups as the biggest threat to the country's nuclear facilities.

"We get special information from the Federal Security Service about their plans regarding our nuclear facilities and, knowing this information, we urgently take all the necessary security measures at these facilities," he said.

Source: Xinhua