Re: Study: High-density storage of nuclear waste heightens terrorism risks

[Steven Dapra <sjd@swcp.com>]

Feb. 14



	Susan Gawarecki asked if any RADSAFERs could comment on "the nature of

NRC's concerns reference[d] in the press release".  The press release

described a study by a group of researchers led by Frank von Hippel of

Princeton, claiming that contamination problems "significantly worse than

those from Chernobyl" would result from a terrorist attack on the spent

fuel cooling ponds at a power reactor.



	I can't comment on the technical aspects of the von Hippel et. al. study,

but there are some sidelights and subtleties to this that I would like to

address.



	Last fall, Science magazine published a short "Policy Forum" article by

Douglas M. Chapin et. al. (2002) about the consequences of a terrorist

attack on a power reactor, or on spent fuel shipping casks.  Science

published three replies to this article, one of them by Frank von Hippel

(2003), and a rejoinder from Chapin et. al. (2003).



	Von Hippel cited NUREG 1738 as saying that certain large aircraft could

penetrate a five-foot thick reinforced concrete wall of a pressurized water

reactor spent fuel storage pool causing so much damage the pool would drain

rapidly and could not be refilled.  Also according to von Hippel, NUREG

1738 said that under these circumstances there was a good possibility that

the fuel rods could catch fire, causing the release of ten time more

cesium-137 than was released at Chernobyl.  Chapin et. al. addressed these

points in their rejoinder, explaining that there was not as much danger as

von Hippel was claiming.



	It would appear that Frank von Hippel, leader of the Princeton study team,

has already decided that there is great danger from loss of water in a

cooling pool, despite the apparently questionable basis for his

apprehensions.  I invite interested parties to read the germane material in

Science.



	I was grimly amused by the identity of two of the co-authors of the

Princeton study:  the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS), and the Nuclear

Control Institute (NCI).  The NCI is well known to RADSAFERs, I am certain,

as a down-the-line anti-nuclear organization, and this is the type of study

it could be expected to participate in.  The IPS may not be so well known,

as it seems to have fallen on hard times is recent years.  Some 20 years

ago it was in the news often; a militantly pro-Soviet organization that

openly followed Soviet foreign policy objectives, in particular those

pertaining to disarmament (Powell, 1987).



	In the field of nuclear power, Powell writes (p. 186) that "IPS's most

successful assault on corporate power has been against the nuclear

industry, against which the institute [IPS] has generated both antinuclear

studies . . . and a remarkably effective activist program run by GAP [the

Government Accountability Project]."  The IPS-founded GAP gathers sensitive

information and works with disaffected government employees and "has become

a source of leaks for media pundits hungry for sensation" (Powell, p. 97).

 What could be more sensational than an accident at a nuclear power plant?,

and of course, nukes need to be derailed or shut down.  According to GAP's

1982-83 annual report, it was "able to halt construction at two nuclear

power plants, keep another one from starting up, . . . stop Three Mile

Island's (TMI) clean up operation" etc., etc. (Powell, p. 104).  You can

return to pages 186-188 of Powell for more on the IPS creation GAP's

success in wrecking or damaging the nuclear power industry.



	 In light of all this, it should come as no surprise that the Institute

for Policy Studies was a co-author of this Princeton report.  The IPS is

still playing its tired anti-nuclear song, but - ostensibly - gaining some

respectability by being associated with Princeton.



	Flames or excoriations, anyone?  Let's keep them off RADSAFE by sending

them to me at the address below.  Thank you.



Steven Dapra

sjd@swcp.com



REFERENCES



Chapin, Douglas, et. al.  Science 297(____):1997, 1999; 20 September, 2002.



Chapin, Douglas, et. al.  Science 299(____):202-203; 10 January 2003.

(Rejoinder to letter from von Hippel, and to letters from two other authors.)



Powell, S. Steven.  Covert Cadre:  Inside the Institute for Policy Studies.

 Ottawa (IL): Green Hill Publishers, Inc.; 1987.



Von Hippel, Frank N.  Science 299(____):201; 10 January 2003.







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