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RE: Terrorist attacks on nuclear facilities
Dear friends,
I hate to be a voice of reason, but I would seriously appreciate if things
like that (especially the details) are NOT discussed on the OPEN list.
Kind regards
Nick Tsurikov
Eneabba, Western Australia
http://www.eneabba.net/ <http://www.eneabba.net/>
-----Original Message-----
From: keith.millington@TFT.CSIRO.AU
[mailto:keith.millington@TFT.CSIRO.AU]
Sent: Thursday, 13 September 2001 07:50
To: radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu
Subject: RE: Terrorist attacks on nuclear facilities
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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