[A-List] Nuke Safety

["bon moun" <sherrynstan@xxxxxxx>]

[The report mentioned in the study below makes not the slightest mention of
the most vulnerable component of a nuclear power plant - which is NOT the
reactor core.  It's the spent fuel pools, where loss of the cooling pool
water will result in the spent fuel rods (which are tight-racked) igniting.
This will cause a massive release of a horror-list of radioactive isotopes,
including Cesium-137, the stuff that did the most damage at Chernobyl.  We
have the misfortune here in the Triangle area of North Carolina to be
adjacent to the plant with the biggest spent fuel capacity in the nation,
and the only plant that actually imports spent fuel rods from OTHER
plants... that being Shearon Harris, south of Raleigh. The NEI
commissioning a report on nuclear safety  (talk about foxes in henhouses!)
is a reaction to increasing public concern about the potential fallout (no
pun intended) from a foreign policy that seems intended to provoke as many
"asymmetrical" attacks as possible, and the industry's drive to compensate
with cost-cutting measures (related to plant safety) for a growing debt
overhang.  While the Bush administration is pushing hard, with the help of
felons like Admiral Poindexter, to spy on citizens and illegally detain
Muslims in the US, it has studiously avoided implementing real security
measures (like on-site, hardened, dry storage) for its rich pals in the
utilities industries.  This is yet more proof that the "war on terrorism"
is actually a war to try and salvage a doddering and decadent capital
accumulation regime. -SG]

U.S. nuke power plants safe from air strike, says industry
Tuesday, December 24, 2002
By Chris Baltimore, Reuters

WASHINGTON - The nation's 103 operating nuclear power plant reactors could
withstand a direct hit by a fuel-laden commercial airliner with no release
of deadly radiation, a U.S. nuclear industry study said Monday.

Last month, the FBI warned that the U.S. nuclear industry could be the
target of an attack by Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network as a way to
inflict massive casualties, psychological trauma and severe economic
damage.

Since the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington, lawmakers and
activist groups have raised repeated concerns that a similar strike against
a nuclear power plant could spew radioactive material that would kill or
sicken thousands of nearby residents.

A study commissioned by the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) concluded such
an attack could damage the thick concrete walls that surround nuclear
reactors, but would not breach them. Reactors are housed in structures
designed to contain the equivalent of a small nuclear explosion.

The study was not sanctioned by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the
federal agency charged with protecting nuclear plants. It has its own study
underway, but has not set a release date, an NRC spokesman said.

The $1 million industry study, funded by the Energy Department, used
computer modeling to simulate a strike by an airliner flying low to the
ground at 350 miles per hour, similar to the speed of the commercial
jetliner that struck the Pentagon more than a year ago, said the NEI, the
nuclear industry's main lobbying group.

The study showed that such a strike would damage a plant's ability to
generate electricity, but ``public health and safety would be protected,''
NEI President Joe Colvin said.

Containment structures, used fuel storage pools and containers used to hold
radioactive byproducts would withstand the impact "despite some concrete
crushing and bent steel," NEI said in a statement.

The results "validate the industry's confidence that nuclear power plants
are robust and protect the fuel from impacts of a large commercial
aircraft," Colvin said.

The industry group did not release the full report, citing security
concerns.

Rep. Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat and long-time critic of the
nuclear industry, criticized the report's reliance on virtual computer
models.

"It is less than comforting to know that the nuclear energy industry has
computer models predicting that a virtual airplane carrying a virtual load
of fuel ... would be unlikely to result in a virtual release of
radioactivity," Markey said in a statement.

CRITICS SAY PLANTS VULNERABLE

Activist groups said they were not convinced that nuclear plants are safe
from aircraft attack.

"There are a lot of safety equipment outside of the containment that would
disable and potentially lead to a meltdown," said Jim Riccio, a nuclear
expert with Greenpeace. The greatest chance of causing a plant meltdown
comes from a loss of off-site power, Riccio said.

"If an airplane strikes one of these nuclear sites it's going to be in a
world of hurt. And only the grace of God is going to prevent a meltdown,"
he said.

Critics say that in addition to the nuclear core, another security risk is
the large amount of spent fuel waste stored at most of the nation's nuclear
power plants. Some 2,000 metric tonnes of nuclear waste is produced every
year by the power plants, which must store the waste on site until a
federal, underground repository in Nevada is completed.

Several Democrats unsuccessfully pushed earlier this year to federalize the
privately employed security guards at nuclear power plants as another
safety precaution. Utilities and the NRC opposed the proposal.

Some U.S. nuclear power plants, such as the Indian Point plant about 25
miles north of New York City, have had National Guard troops and other
armed patrols keeping watch.

STUDY ANALYZES ENGINE IMPACT

The new study's results also apply to the damage done by an aircraft
engine, which packs more punch than the fuselage because of its density.
The 9,500-pound engine size assumed in the studyis typical of most
commercial airlines in service, NEI said.

The study assumed that a fully fuel-laden Boeing 767-400 struck a
containment structure at its maximum take-off weight of 450,000 pounds,
even though some of that fuel would be consumed en route to any nuclear
facility, NEI said.
The Boeing 767 is the most widely used ``wide-body'' commercial aircraft in
the U.S. fleet.

The computer models showed no part of an airplane's engine, fuselage, wings
or jet fuel entered the containment area, NEI said.

Nuclear power plants provide about 20 percent of the nation's electricity.

Copyright 2002, Reuters
All Rights Reserved


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