Burlington ? Members of the 1st Battalion 127th Field Artillery looked like anything but artillerymen Tuesday as they trained.

Their 155 mm Paladin howitzers weren’t around. Instead, they were on foot and in Humvees in and around the grounds and fields of the Wolf Creek nuclear plant, training for an emergency or act of terrorism.

“If you are a terrorist and you want to create headlines, you’re not going to the Capitol, you’re going to the nuclear plant,” said Col. Milton Ayala, of San Antonio, commander of the Kansas National Guard’s 130th Field Artillery Brigade of Topeka, which includes the 1st Battalion, 127th Field Artillery. “We’re taking this mission seriously. This might be where we fight.”

Cathy Atrey, spokeswoman for Wolf Creek, said security at the plant had changed dramatically since September 2001 and continued to evolve. She spent 10 years in the security division at the plant and is now seeing changes that some had sought for years.

Soldiers were around the plant to augment security following the 2001 attacks and during the heightened threats of December 2003. Atrey said some residents in Coffey County at first were concerned there was more of a threat or danger.

“They’re just a precaution,” Atrey said.

Wolf Creek, which produces about 1.2 million kilowatts of electricity for 800,000 customers in Kansas and Missouri, employs its own security force. U.S. nuclear plants have invested more than $500 million in upgrades since 2001.

“We have never been under the misperception that we can protect the health and safety of the county on our own,” Atrey said.

The 127th Field Artillery, based in Ottawa, is responsible at the state level for supporting activities on the northern edge of Wolf Creek in time of need. However, with the upcoming deployment to Iraq of the 891st Engineer Battalion in Iola later this year, this week’s training takes on greater importance, as the artillery unit will be asked to pick up more of the security burden if needed.

As the war continues, the strain on National Guard units continues to increase. Joy Moser, spokeswoman for the Kansas National Guard, said about 1,500 guardsmen from Kansas currently are deployed or are about to be deployed, including 351 members of the 2nd Battalion, 130th Field Artillery, which is a sister unit of the Ottawa battalion. About 5,400 people are in the Kansas Army National Guard.

“The National Guard Bureau has set a goal of no more than 50 percent of a state deployed, and we expect our numbers to get close to 40 percent,” she said.