Nuclear Terrorism Can Cause Another Fukushima: Expert

[kristopher]

Nuclear Terrorism Can Cause Another Fukushima: Expert

June 23, 2011


VIENNA (Reuters) - Global action to protect the nuclear industry against possible terrorist attacks is urgently needed, a leading expert said, as are safety steps to prevent any repeat of Japan's Fukushima accident.

"Both al Qaeda and Chechen terrorist groups have repeatedly considered sabotaging nuclear reactors -- and Fukushima provided a compelling example of the scale of terror such an attack might cause," Matthew Bunn of Harvard University said.

Some countries had "extraordinarily weak security measures in place," he said in an Internet blog posted this week, without naming them.

"The nuclear industry in many countries is much less prepared to cope with security incidents than with accidents," wrote Bunn, an associate professor at Harvard Kennedy School who specializes in nuclear issues.

Steps to protect against ...

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=nuclear-terrorism-can-cause

[enough]

1. And the spent fuel pools are even more vulnerable than the reactors themselves. (nt)

[TheWraith]

2. Right, because there's some evidence, ANY evidence, of a threat of terrorism today.

Anything. Anywhere. Besides morons and fuckups who can't even build a car bomb, let alone figure out how to infiltrate and sabotage a nuclear power plant.

[kristopher]

5. Sometimes your perspective is a bit difficult to reconcile with reality...

And other times, like now, it is impossible.

[OKIsItJustMe]

3. Press Release and Report

Press Release: http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/publication/21090/first_joint_usrussia_assessment_of_nuclear_terror_threat.html

Report: http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/files/Joint-Threat-Assessment%20ENG%2027%20May%202011.pdf

…

Sabotage of a Nuclear Facility

Both al-Qaeda and North Caucasus terrorist groups have considered sabotage of nuclear facilities and dispersal of radioactive material in a dirty bomb.

Terrorists could attack a nuclear facility in the hope of causing a large release of radioactivity. There is evidence that al-Qaeda’s leadership considered such a possibility prior to September 11, 2001, when operatives reportedly conducted some light casing of U.S. nuclear reactor facilities.⁷ However, given the enhanced security and reinforced defenses at U.S. nuclear sites, al-Qaeda presumably concluded that it would be too difficult either to crash a plane into a nuclear facility or to sabotage a plant by means of insider infiltration or external attack. This optimistic appraisal may not apply to all facilities in all countries, including the United States and Russia. Terrorists will certainly be searching for a “weakest link” facility in an otherwise well-defended nuclear establishment. Moreover, the dramatic developments associated with the Fukushima disaster might awaken terrorist interest in this path to nuclear terrorism.

One important lesson of the Chernobyl and Fukushima accidents is that what can happen as a result of an accident can also happen as a result of a premeditated action. Indeed, today’s high levels of nuclear safety are dependent on the high reliability of components such as cooling systems; if these are intentionally destroyed, the probability of a large release would increase greatly. Terrorists will most likely try to damage a reactor’s support and water supply systems as well as its control and protection system to cause a heat explosion of the reactor with subsequent demolition of the reactor and the building in which it is located. Even if terrorists fail to cause a wide-scale dispersal of radioactive material, their sabotage efforts may still provoke widespread terror, shut down a reactor, and cause significant economic and socio-political damage (as the Fukushima accident has done). Overfilled spent fuel pools may also be potential sabotage targets; in some cases, if terrorists managed to drain the cooling water—as occurred without human intervention at Fukushima—a zirconium fire and large-scale dispersal of radioactivity could potentially result.

Other potential sabotage targets include research reactors, nuclear waste reprocessing plants, or during the transportation of spent nuclear fuel or high-level waste. Another scenario of a radiological terrorism act could involve hijacking a vehicle or vessel that is transporting radioactive materials and threatening to blow it up.⁸

…


⁷ “Al-Qaeda Suspect Worked at U.S. Nuclear Plants,” MSNBC, March 12, 2010, available at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35822126/ns/us_news-security/

⁸ For an assessment of sabotage threat, see Vladimir Belous, Chapter 8 “Threat of Sabotage of Nuclear Facilities” in “Threat of Nuclear Terrorism”, edited by Alexei Arbatov, Institute of World Economy and International Relations, (Moscow, Russia, 2008).

[kristopher]

4. Thanks. nt

[Fledermaus]

6. How many wars have there been in Europe in the last 300 years? Some want to use nuclear forever?

How stupid is that? Nuclear is not a long term solution to anything.

[kristopher]

8. You can even limit that question to political stability over 60-100 years.

That is how long the new reactors are expected to be operating. Given the last 100 years, I'm pretty sure that building 1500-2000 reactors is asking for several of them to be used as prepositioned nuclear weapons during that time.

[Name removed]

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