Agenda - 03-29-2007- - Laserfiche WebLink

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NRC Accused of Dishonesty by Nuclear Safety Engineer — and Criticized for Reliance on Fire "Mitigation" Instead of Defense Against Aircraft Attack The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission voted on January 9, 2007 not to require nuclear plant owners to defend against aircraft or more than a handful of ground attackers. In a prepared statement, NRC Chairman Dale Klein said, "Nuclear power plants are inherently robust structures that our studies show provide adequate protection in a hypothetical attack by an airplane." However, David Lochbau m responded with an eleven -page rebuttal challenging the existence of such studies. Furthermore, he quoted and summarized numerous federal studies indicating the opposite, that numerous types of attacks — on a variety of plant structures including several outside the containment building — could cause catastrophic releases of radiation. These studies also show, as Lochbau m said, that "allegedly robust nuclear plant structures are extremely vulnerable to fires front within. " Jim Warren, NC WARN See the entire UCS Issue Brief for a fuller discussion and footnotes: http 11www ncwarn org/ UCS %20Iss %2OBrie1% SOW% 20HlGHLIGHTS %20by %20JIMYo2OFebO7.pdf Excerpts from the Union of Concerned Scientists Issue Brief: The NRC's Revised Security Regulations, by David Lochbauim, Nuclear Safety Project Director [This summary was prepared by NC WARN, March 2007. Context is provided in brackets] Responding to Klein's statement that "Nuclear power plants are inherently robust structures that our studies show provide adequate protection in a hypothetical attack by an airplane. ": [Lochbaurm] Really? What studies show that? Certainly not any of these publicly available studies: 1) [1982, Indian Point nuclear plant] THIS study documented the existence of a structure at a nuclear power plant that failed to provide adequate protection against aircraft attack. 2) [1982 NRC report by Argomle National Laboratory] The report stated: The major threats associated with an aircraft crash are the impact loads resulting from the collision of the aircraft with power plant structures and components and the thermal and /or overpressure effects which can arise due to the ignition of the fuel carried by the aircraft.... the core would most probably be headed for serious damage if not total meltdown. ...Note that the above sequence of events does not depend in any way on the breach of a hardened structure THIS study clearly, categorically, explicitly, and undeniably refutes the fanciful notion that nuclear power plants are robust structures and describes numerous' scenarios in which an aircraft crash could lead to significant reactor core damage. 3) [ 1987 NRC regarding an accident at Surry that killed four workers] "Condensed steam saturated a security card reader in the turbine building basement approximately 50 feet from the failed pipe and shorted out the card reader system for the entire plant. As a result, key cards would not open doors controlled by the security system. "