Are Nuclear Plants Safe From Attack?
Oct. 22 -- In light of the Sept. 11 attacks and the recent string of anthrax exposures, scientists and authorities have been forced to plan for another kind of unthinkable attack — on nuclear power plants.
If the improbable happened and terrorists managed to attack and penetrate a nuclear reactor core at a power plant, it could trigger an explosive meltdown that could spread radiation for hundreds of miles and trigger lethal health problems, if not immediate death among large populations. An undercover intruder could wreak similar havoc by sabotaging a plant from the inside.
Officials from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and others emphasize that such events are highly unlikely and claim that facilities are protected against attacks.
But it's clear the idea has been considered, if not by terrorists, then at least by terrorist impersonators. Last week, two airports near the Three Mile Island nuclear facility near Harrisburg, Pa., were closed after authorities said they had received a "credible" threat against the plant. By Thursday morning, the threat was dismissed and airports were reopened.
The false alert was a reminder of the vigilant defense needed at nuclear power plants. Some point to the 1986 accidental Chernobyl meltdown in Ukraine, which killed as many as 2,500 people, as an example of possible damages wrought by a nuclear power plant meltdown.
Daniel Hirsch, president of the Los Angeles-based nuclear watchdog group, the Committee to Bridge the Gap, recently told reporters gathered at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., that nuclear reactors are "among the most high-value targets that we have in the United States."
NRC: We Are Ready
The NRC is vague but confident when asked if the 103 nuclear plants across the United States are braced against attack.
"Yes, we are ready. We can't say how, but we are ready," said NRC spokesman Victor Dricks.
One line of defense is the structures that enclose nuclear reactors. Although they vary slightly in design, NRC guidelines stipulate that containment buildings be designed to withstand the impact of a bomb or small plane. That durability was proven in a 1989 test when Sandia National Labs in New Mexico sent a rocket-propelled F-4 fighter jet into a containment wall at 480 miles per hour. The jet disintegrated while the wall sustained only 2.4 inches of penetration.
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