Agreed -- spent fuel in pools is much more vulnerable (though its generally below ground level - not easy to hit, and several metres below water surface - burning fuel floats).
BUT its also much less radioactive -- the activity (and heat) decreases tremendously in the initial hours, days and weeks following discharge from the reactor. Not likely to result in dangerous contamination beyond the plant's exclusion boundary, therefore not an attractive target for terrorists, IMHO.
Jaro
-----Original Message-----
From: Miller, Mark L [mailto:mmiller@SANDIA.GOV]
Sent: Tuesday October 09, 2001 1:38 PM
To: 'RADSAFE'
Subject: Reactor Containments and Terrorist Attacks
Has anyone thought of the much more vulnerable spent fuel pools and onsite
storage of spent fuel rods (ISFSI)? It seems to me that these locations are
MUCH more vulnerable to disruption and dispersal than the fuel in the
reactor itself.
Mark L. Miller, Certified Health Physicist
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