America mobilizes

In this mention

Following the September 11 terrorist attacks, the article examines nuclear plant security in the context of potential terrorist threats. Stephen Smith of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy welcomes the NRC's review of safety and security systems at U.S. nuclear reactors, while Rep. John Duncan expresses confidence in existing containment structures and opposes shutting down nuclear plants.

I would be very much opposed to shutting down the nuclear power plants
Stephen A. Smith

Original clipping

PDF didn't open? Open it in a new tab →

The Knoxville News-Sentinel

America mobilizes

TVA

The NRC analysis concluded if a 727 airliner crashed into a nuclear plant containment building, which has a steel and concrete shell 4 to 6 feet thick, "it would be sufficiently strong to maintain its integrity" with no release of radiation.

However, the NRC has begun a study of whether more safety and security systems are needed at the 103 U.S. nuclear reactors at 65 sites in light of terrorists using somewhat larger aircraft, hijacked 757s and 767s, to crash into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

U.S. Rep. John J. Duncan Jr., a Knoxville Republican, said that judging on what he has read and heard of the safety and security of nuclear power plants and their hardened containment buildings, the terrorists' use airliners is no reason to stop building nuclear plants or to not extend the operating licenses of current plants.

"I'm not worried about that at all," Duncan said. "I would be very much opposed to shutting down the nuclear power plants."

Stephen Smith, an environmental activist and veterinarian who works with the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy in Knoxville, welcomed the NRC's review of whether more safety and security systems are needed.

In the last year federal officials have learned of tentative plans by terrorists to target power plants. An Algerian, Ahmed Ressam, earlier convicted in a terrorist conspiracy, testified at a trial in New York in July that training in camps in Afghanistan included the targets of power plants, airports, railroads and large corporations.

TVA operates three nuclear plants - Watts Bar near Spring City, Sequoyah near Chattanooga and Browns Ferry near Athens in north Alabama.

Since the terrorist attacks, all of the nation's nuclear plants have been placed on the highest level of security - Level 3 - for the first time in history. TVA will not describe what extra security that entails, but Moulton said the agency has closed all four of its visitors centers at hydroelectric dams and stopped public tours as part of extra security.