Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
of radiation in the event of a terrorist attack or sabotage. It is possible
that terrorists who might succeed in breaching plant security could
disable safety systems and trigger a fuel meltdown and the release of
radioactive materials that would have a major impact on public health
and safety and on the environment. Shortly following the 9/11 attack on
the World Trade Center, it was reported that the Indian Point Nuclear
Station thirty-fi ve miles north of New York City had been mentioned in
documents confi scated from terrorism suspects. Energy Secretary Spencer
Abraham said there was evidence that terrorists may have specifi cally
targeted the Palo Verde nuclear power station in Arizona, the largest
nuclear plant in the United States.
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Because of security concerns, it is diffi cult for outside groups to assess
whether today's security measures are adequate. However, it is signifi -
cant that in January 2003, nineteen Greenpeace activists entered the
Sizewell nuclear plant in the United Kingdom, avoiding the guarded
entrances and scaling the reactor without resistance. Their goal was to
expose the plant's vulnerability. If the intruders had been actual terror-
ists, the result would have been catastrophic.
The safety and security implications of the global nuclear expansion
will depend at least in part on where the expansion occurs. As of
2010, most nuclear plant expansion is expected to occur in developing
countries, many of which have weaknesses in legal structures (rule of
law); construction practices; operating, safety, and security cultures;
and regulatory oversight. The relationship between wealth and security
in the construction and operation of nuclear installations is analogous
to that of food imports: we expect the food grown in the United States
to be cleaner, on average, than food from Third World countries. And
it is.
Over the next two to three decades, the fl eet of U.S. reactors will
be dominated by existing reactors, not by new reactors with improved
designs, because most existing reactors are receiving twenty-year oper-
ating license extensions. Thus, the safety and security issues surrounding
nuclear power plants in 2010 will persist through the 2020s and
2030s. The safety issues may well become worse because of the increas-
ing age of plants that were not designed to last sixty years. There is
also the sheer law of numbers. The more plants that are operating
and the longer they run, the greater the statistical chance there is of
a signifi cant core damage event, either accidental or malicious in
origin.
