Re: URL for Greenpeace report

[RuthWeiner@AOL.COM]

For those of you who don't feel like accessing Greenpeace, here are some gems 

from that executive summary:





"Risky Business:

The Probability and Consequences of a Nuclear Accident 

(Greenpeace report by Jim Riccio released November 14, 2001) 



Executive Summary 



Each nuclear reactor has the potential to devastate the region in which it 

operates. As the events of September 11th tragically demonstrated, the risk 

of a nuclear reactor meltdown must encompass not only the potential for an 

accident but also the possibility of sabotage. The U.S. government has known 

since at least the mid- 1990's that terrorists were targeting nuclear power 

plants. Despite the known threat and an abysmal security record, the U.S. 

Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff repeatedly attempted to kill the 

government's program for testing security at nuclear reactors. Rather than 

addressing the nuclear industry's inability to protect itself from mock 

terrorists, the NRC has moved to allow the nuclear industry to test itself. 



According to the government's own studies, the consequences of an accident at 

one of the 103 nuclear reactors throughout the U.S. would be devastating. If 

a meltdown were to occur in either the reactor or the spent fuel pool, the 

accident could kill and injure tens of thousands of people, cost billions of 

dollars in damages and leave large regions uninhabitable. The NRC originally 

attempted to down play the most damaging results. The regulators used the 

lowest probability figures for largest radioactive releases studied. 



The consequences of a nuclear accident are projected to occur from a core 

melt accident in which all installed safety equipment fails and the reactor 

containment is breached directly to the atmosphere. This scenario is not 

unthinkable when you realize that none of the containment structures at U.S. 

reactors were designed to withstand a core melt accident. Nor is it not 

unimaginable that safety equipment at U.S. reactors would fail. In fact, the 

failure of safety systems to perform their function has contributed to the 

shutdown of several nuclear reactors since the mid 1990s including Big Rock 

Point, Haddam Neck, Maine Yankee and Millstone 1. ...."



Once again: a question:  what does Greenpeace hope to accomplish with this 

sort of stuff?



Ruth



************************************************************************

You are currently subscribed to the Radsafe mailing list. To unsubscribe,

send an e-mail to Majordomo@list.vanderbilt.edu  Put the text "unsubscribe

radsafe" (no quote marks) in the body of the e-mail, with no subject line.