The nuclear industry responds to the prospect of a
terrorist attack as a public relations problem. It attempts to conceal the grim
reality of increased vulnerability that reactor communities live with. Public relations will not solve the problem.
The awful truth is that nuclear waste will always be vulnerable to terrorism.
Reactors should be shuttered since as long as they operate they create more
deadly waste, making reactor communities hostage to terrorist attacks and suffering.
Nuclear power reactors are recognized in the
aftermath from 9/11, as terrorist targets. Reactor sites contain more than a 1000
times the radiation released in one Hiroshima sized atomic bomb. The US
Nuclear Regulatory Commission estimated a single attack could bring about
100,000 deaths in the first year after the accident, an additional 600,000
immediate injuries and 40,000 long term cancers. The land and property
destroyed would remain useless for decades. Significantly, homeowner's policies
do not cover nuclear disasters. One nuclear reactor, successfully destroyed,
would instill the kind of fear sought by terrorists.
TERRORISM
AND NUKES
BBC Monitoring reported September
12, 2001 that Russian intelligence warned the CIA that more attacks were
imminent and that "the next target of the terrorists will be an American
nuclear facility." U.S.News and World Reports Amhed Ressham, the terrorist, convicted of
trying to import explosives into the US to bomb Los Angeles International Airport, referred in his testimony
to a camp in Afghanistan where he received training
to destroy power plants, airports, railroads and large corporations (NYT, 07-04-01).
Al Qaida terrorist captured in Pakistan in September 2002 stated
that the first targets considered for the 9/11 terrorist attack were nuclear
reactors in the US, but rejected it because of
the threat of worldwide contamination. (NYT, 09-09-02)
REACTOR FUEL POOLS ARE TARGETS FOR TERRORISM
Operating reactors and shuttered
reactor sites are both targets since the tens of millions of curies of high
level waste contained in fuel pools of reactors is the likely target. Dry cask storage of high level waste is vulnerable. None could withstand an attack like America experienced on September
11th. In fact fuel pools and cask
storage are more vulnerable and far less secure than the containment buildings.
DUMPING IT
SOMEWHERE ELSE IS NO HELP!
Shipping high level waste somewhere else is no answer.
Even if Yucca Mountain or another dump were sited, the fuel would not move for
decades. As long as reactors create more waste, the pools and dry storage need
effective protection. It is also
essential that we not forget the deadly effects of routine operation of
reactors during peace times that have caused epidemics in disease and great
suffering in nuclear fuel cycle communities.
9 DETERENTS
TO TERRORISM
1. Federalize security at reactor sites. As with airline security,
nuclear corporation’s drive for profits undermine their ability to adequately
defend nuclear sites.
2. CREATE
HARDENED ON SITE STORAGE (HOSS) so that an attack on a nuclear reactor site would
not result in catastrophic releases. Hardening should allow security to resist
almost all types of attacks. The amount of releases projected in even severe
attacks should be small enough that the storage system would be unattractive as
a terrorist target. Require HOSS, emergency planning and security measures to
be maintained at shuttered reactors as well since irradiated fuel is the target
for terrorism. Currently, they are not.
