Word: reactor
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...member of the International Atomic Energy Agency, who advises on nuclear-security issues at the Paris-based Institute of International and Strategic Relations. "It would require a relatively large number of highly experienced experts in nuclear technology to be able to intentionally provoke a nuclear accident from within a reactor," he says. Stephen Floyd, a vice president of regulatory affairs at the NEI, argues that terrorists wouldn't even try: "It doesn't seem very credible to us that terrorists would launch an attack against a nuclear power plant that's very heavily armed, especially when you look at other...
...here, and we've enhanced their weaponry," says Jeff Benjamin, a vice president of Exelon Corp., which operates the plant on the bank of the Susquehanna River. "We have a number of sensors, cameras and lighting," he told a visiting TIME correspondent, declining to elaborate for security reasons. The reactor itself is deep inside walls of concrete and steel. Says Benjamin: "All of the design and construction we do to keep bad stuff in is also pretty darn good at keeping bad stuff...
...posed by the 43,600 tons of spent nuclear fuel now resting in cooling pools at all 64 power plants across the country. Choking off the water that cools these pools could trigger a radioactive fire that some scientists believe could cause as much death and disease as a reactor meltdown. The panel of the N.A.S., which is private but has a mandate to advise the Federal Government on scientific matters, said it couldn't determine whether the plants and their spent-fuel pools could be defended against attack because the NRC decided the panel "did not have a need...
...taboo energy source as a credible, clean alternative to coal- and natural-gas-powered plants. While most Americans still don't want a nuke plant in their backyard, some economically depressed areas, like Port Gibson, Miss., and Oswego, N.Y., are actively lobbying to be the home of a new reactor--and of all the jobs and tax revenue that come with it. Most important, the powers that be in Washington, including President George W. Bush and Republican leaders in Congress, are firmly behind nuclear's expansion...
...Earlier this year the British government reported that from April 2003 to April 2004, nuclear-plant security was compromised more than 40 times; guards failed to answer an intruder alarm during a burglary, for instance. In 2003 Greenpeace volunteers breached the control building of a plant and scaled the reactor dome. Before 9/11, most plant guards were unarmed, but in April the government established the Civil Nuclear Constabulary to supply armed guards. So far, however, it consists of only 650 guards and staff, who are responsible for 43 facilities nationwide...