Active terrorist targets are not in the public good for the citizens
of the Northeast. Dealing with this problem requires tough choices.
There are no good choices when it comes to nuclear power and its
toxic waste. There are only better choices over really bad ones. This
bind is in itself unacceptable and intolerable. The threat of terrorism
only makes it worse. Citizens Awareness Network has worked for years to
raise consciousness about fuel pool vulnerability to terrorism and was
instrumental in pressuring Congress to fund the National Academy of
Sciences Report that found reactor fuel pools are vulnerable to
terrorism.
We need to protect our communities, but we don’t want to help Entergy,
Dominion or Constellation transform license termination for their aging
nukes into a scheme for relicensing vulnerable, corroding terrorist
targets. We don’t want them storing more and more waste on site to keep
their nukes running. GE Mark 1 and 2 reactors (Vermont Yankee, Pilgrim,
Nine Mile Point 1 and 2, Fitzpatrick and Millstone Unit 1 are Mark 1
and 2s) are structurally the most vulnerable reactors in the country.
Their filled-to-capacity, elevated pools pose an unacceptable risk. An
attack on the pool in which fuel cladding caught fire could result in a
25,000 square mile area being uninhabitable for decades. The National
Academy of Sciences Report on fuel pool vulnerability states that such
a fire could lead to the dispersal of radioactive plumes up to 100
miles.
The NAS report calls for early removal of fuel to “improved” dry
storage. G.E. designed pools must be returned to low density
configuration, older fuel removed and stored in reinforced steel and
concrete canisters, bermed with earth and separated from each other by
70 feet instead of 6 feet. On-site storage of fuel must be linked to
license termination and long term on-site cool down of the reactor
insuring retention of the skilled workforce during ecommissioning.
- Deb Katz
Citizens Awareness Network
