[ RadSafe ] Dr Frank Barnaby on nuclear electricity and nuclear terrorism

[Roger Helbig]

The latest nightmare from the anti-DU crowd.

Roger Helbig

----- Original Message ----- 

"[Barnaby] said that if a dirty bomb contained a piece of plutonium the size of a $1 [Australian] coin, it could radioactively contaminate an area of about five square kilometres to such an extent it would have to be evacuated and decontaminated."

That's a "Western Nations" cleanup, mind you.

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Expert warns of nuclear terror targets
Melbourne Age   August 6, 2005 - 6:29AM


Increased risk of nuclear weapons proliferation is one of the major arguments against moving to a new generation of nuclear reactors, a visiting nuclear physicist and defence analyst says.

A new generation of nuclear reactors would be based on plutonium of a type ideal for the fabrication of the most effective nuclear weapons, Dr Frank Barnaby said.

Dr Barnaby, a nuclear physicist by training, is now a freelance defence analyst and a prolific author on military technology.

He is the nuclear issues consultant to the Oxford Research Group in the UK and was director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute from 1971-81.

Dr Barnaby will give the keynote speech at the Medical Association for Prevention of War conference in Melbourne on Sunday.

He argues there are too many negatives to electing to move to nuclear power as an alternative to greenhouse gas-producing fossil fuel technology.

A renewable energy future, such as with solar power, was a viable and safe alternative, he said.

Dr Barnaby said the use of nuclear power significantly increased the risk of nuclear terrorist attacks.

"Nuclear power reactors inevitably produce plutonium as a by-product as they burn their uranium fuel to generate electricity," he said.

"If spent reactor fuel elements are reprocessed to chemically remove the plutonium, some of it could be illegally acquired by terrorists and used in a dirty bomb or used to fabricate a crude nuclear explosive."

He said that if a dirty bomb contained a piece of plutonium the size of a $1 coin, it could radioactively contaminate an area of about five square kilometres to such an extent it would have to be evacuated and decontaminated.

Dr Barnaby also said that, although nuclear power was often said to be clean - meaning that it does not emit greenhouse gases - it actually produced large amounts of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas.

"Every stage of the nuclear-fuel cycle ... uses electricity generated by fossil fuel (oil or gas)," he said.
"If there is to be a nuclear renaissance worldwide, the question of the net carbon production is a major issue that must be fully addressed."

Dr Barnaby said the nuclear industry wanted to move soon to generation III reactors and looked forward to the time when generation IV reactors would be built.

"The nuclear fuel used in generation III and IV reactors will be based on plutonium of a type ideal for the fabrication of the most effective nuclear weapons," he said.

"The increased risk of the proliferation of nuclear weapons to states and terrorists is one of the major arguments against moving to a new generation of nuclear reactors."

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Copyright © 2005. The Age Company Ltd.