RE: Terrorist attacks on nuclear facilities

[keith.millington@TFT.CSIRO.AU]

It's reassuring to hear that the design criteria for US nuclear plants

considers the impact of a fully-fuelled commercial jet. However in the UK

(apart from the PWRs at Sizewell ) nuclear power plants are

graphite-moderated, primary CO2-cooled Magnox and AGRs with far larger cores

(and hence, I think, larger containment vessels)  than PWRs. Intuitively, I

would expect larger containment vessels to be weaker, and therefore more

vulnerable, but I'm not an engineer and would be interested in more expert

advice. 



In particular several of the Magnox stations still operating were built in

the 1950s / early 1960s. I'm not sure  how the Magnox or AGR facilities

would stand up against a fully-fuelled 767. If the containment is breached,

there is of course the possibility of a graphite fire (cf Windscale stored

energy release incident in 1957, Chernobyl 1986), with very serious

consequences.  



Maybe somebody working at the UK Nuclear Installations Inspectorate, or the

UK companies now operating these reactors (I was there in the good old CEGB

days) could provide more knowledgeable and up-to-date comments. 



It's a great pity that, following yesterday's events, these low-probability

concerns have now become a reality.



Keith Millington

 



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

From: Dukelow, James S Jr [mailto:jim.dukelow@pnl.gov]

Sent: Thursday, 13 September 2001 3:29 AM

To: 'Jack Earley'; keith.millington@TFT.CSIRO.AU;

radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu

Subject: RE: Terrorist attacks on nuclear facilities







The ability of containment to survive the impact of a fully-fueled large jet

liner has been one of the nuclear plant design criteria for many years.  I

suspect there are no operating nuclear plants in the U.S. and most other

countries that are not designed to survive such an impact and safely shut

down.



Best regards.



Jim Dukelow

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Richland, WA

jim.dukelow@pnl.gov



These comments are mine and have not been reviewed and/or approved by my

management or by the U.S. Department of Energy.



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

From: Jack Earley [mailto:jearley@enercon.com]

Sent: Wednesday, September 12, 2001 4:59 AM

To: keith.millington@TFT.CSIRO.AU; radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu

Subject: Re: Terrorist attacks on nuclear facilities





As I recall, since TMI is near the Harrisburg International Airport, its

containment was designed to withstand the impact of a 737 at 600 mph. I

suppose any future plants should now take that design feature into account.



Jack Earley

Radiological Engineer



Enercon Services, Inc.

6525 N. Meridian, Suite 503

OKC, OK  73116

phone: 405-722-7693

fax:       405-722-7694

jearley@enercon.com



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