Are you as unimpressed by this "expert" as I am ?
Jaro
Jane's nuclear expert on carnage a terrorist could cause at a nuclear site.
By ANDY OPPENHEIMER.
14 January 2003
The Mirror (UK)
IF terrorists had been the invaders today, Britain could have faced a Chernobyl-style disaster.
Attackers would have been able to disable external cooling systems that prevent the reactor from overheating (which is what happened at Chernobyl). Suicide bombers could simply break in and detonate their explosives.
A terrorist attack could release radioactive particles into the atmosphere, at best causing disruption to energy supplies, at worst radioactive fallout, hysteria and mass fatalities.
To cause a core meltdown and disperse radioactive material, attackers would have to defeat the security systems and destroy or disable its multiple safety systems simultaneously.
Terrorists could have wrought havoc. Explosives could cause a massive radiological release. Small truck bombs could damage vital reactor systems and lead to a core meltdown.
A jumbo jet hitting the reactor containment building would cause a massive explosion and subsequent radioactive release. A typical nuclear power plant contains within its core about 1,000 times the long-lived radioactivity released by the Hiroshima bomb. Spent fuel pools at a plant typically contain several Chernobyls worth.
British plants have the potential to release hundreds of times more deadly material than was released at Chernobyl. The rupturing of the atom plant tanks of radioactive waste would cause unprecedented carnage. If a cooling system were sabotaged it could release waste into the sea with a half-life of 213,000 years.
The Royal Air Force is responsible for intercepting hijacked commercial aircraft deemed a threat to nuclear sites. What is needed is a comprehensive upgrade of security systems.
Security and safety at civil nuclear sites were being reviewed after the September 11 attacks, but no details have been given.
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Protesters Invade British Nuclear Plant
The New York Times 14 January 2003
LONDON, Jan. 13 -- Using ropes, ladders, climbing hooks and wire cutters estimated to cost a total of less than $50, more than 30 Greenpeace protesters broke into a nuclear power station in eastern England today in an effort to demonstrate poor security at nuclear plants.
''Britain is sending troops into a war, we have a war on terror, the British nuclear industry is meant to be on the highest state of alert, but it was essentially a breeze to get in,'' said Blake Lee-Harwood, the environmental group's campaign director.
Some of the climbers managed to reach the dome above the nuclear reactor at the Sizewell B station near Leiston in Suffolk. They left the dome tonight ,hours after their 6 a.m. invasion.
British Energy, the plant's operator, said the trespassers, 12 of whom were arrested by the police, had posed no risk to safety.