CONTROVERSY continues to dog nuclear waste storage facilities in the US. Despite earlier assurances by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the nuclear industry that the waste is not vulnerable to terrorism, a report by the National Academy of Sciences argues that terrorist attacks on these facilities could result in lethal radioactive fallout.
A committee of 15 leading scientists from universities, research institutes and consultancies studied nuclear waste stored in cooling ponds at 103 US reactors. In its report, released publicly on 6 April, the committee argues that the cooling ponds in which spent radioactive fuel is kept could be severely damaged by aircraft, high-powered weapons or explosives.
If the water drained from the cooling ponds, the zirconium alloy fuel cladding would overheat and burst into flames. This 鈥渃ould release large quantities of radioactive material into the environment鈥�, the report concludes. Committee chair Louis Lanzerotti of the New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark says, 鈥淭he committee identified several terrorist attack scenarios that could have potentially severe consequences.鈥�
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In a letter to Congress on 14 March, the NRC insisted some scenarios were 鈥渦nreasonable鈥�, and some recommendations 鈥渓acked a sound technical basis鈥�. Nevertheless, an NRC statement on 6 April said serious consideration was being given to the recommendations.
