NRC REACTS TO TERRORIST ATTACKS <SNIP> Q: What would happen if a large
commercial airliner was intentionally crashed into a nuclear power
plant?
A:. Nuclear power plants have
inherent capability to protect public health and safety through such features as
robust containment buildings, redundant safety systems, and highly trained
operators. They are among the most hardened structures in the country and are
designed to withstand extreme events, such as hurricanes, tornadoes and
earthquakes. In addition, all NRC licenses with significant radiological
material have emergency response plans to enable the mitigation of impacts on
the public in the event of a release. However, the NRC did not specifically
contemplate attacks by aircraft such as Boeing 757s or 767s and nuclear power plants were not designed to withstand such
crashes. Detailed engineering analyses of a large airliner crash
have not yet been performed.
<SNIP>
....IMHO, the highlighted part of the NRC statement has
been misused by opponents of nuclear power and by the media to mean that NPP
containment domes would be destroyed by such an
impact.
But the airliners too were "not designed" for
demolition of highrise buildings and did it anyway.
Although nobody has ever crashed a full-size airliner into a containment
building, the impact of its jet engine(s) is more than adequately reproduced by
the impact of a single- or twin-jet military fighter plane -- which has
actually been done (the famous rocket-sled propelled Phantom jet slamming
into a fixed reinforced concrete block...).
But I suspect that
officials refuse to get into the details of this, because there are NPPs which
don't have the type of containment dome walls used in the crash
simulation.
However, I think the situation
is not quite as grim as the antinukes make it out to be -- (partial ?) meltdown
due to loss of cooling is one thing, but core dispersal by a blast like that at
Chernobyl is something else completely, and not likely in the PWR
situation.
And even in the
Chernobyl case...........
Jaro |