Threat to campus reactors cited

A growing threat to campus reactors is cited in a new report noting higher risk than previous assessments

Matthew L. Wald for the National Terror Alert Response Center reported Monday, Feb. 11, on college campus nuclear research reactors as a risk for terrorist attack.

Nuclear Regulatory Commission assessments of potential consequences and risk are inaccurate, Congressional auditors are sourced as warning, due to underestimating on the part of regulatory analysts.

Their report complained that the commission had overruled expert contractors who thought differently, and they misrepresented what the contractors said.

Security requirements at the research reactors have changed very little since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, according to the auditors, even though many of the reactors still run on enriched uranium, which terrorists could convert into fuel for an atomic bomb.

In contrast, the rules for civilian power plants have become much stricter, according to the report by the Government Accountability Office.

An unclassified version of the audit found uncertainty “about whether N.R.C.’s assessment reflects the full range of security risks and potential consequences of an attack on a research reactor.”

The rules, the audit said, “may need immediate strengthening,” and said that more parts of research reactors are probably vulnerable to damage than the commission assumes.

Research reactors typically are less than 1 percent as powerful as civilian electric plants, and they usually do not operate under pressure, so there is less energy available to spread radioactive material in case of attack or accident.

They are used for scientific research, training and manufacture of medical isotopes.

But while power reactors are surrounded by fences, guard towers and open space, the research reactors are often located in buildings on densely populated campuses.

Some have added concrete barriers to protect against truck bombs, and better doors, but “first responders” to an alarm are likely to be unarmed campus police officers, the audit said.

Government nuclear experts brought in by the commission paint a grimmer picture, according to the audit…

Representative Christopher Shays, a Connecticut Republican who requested the audit, said of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission: “They’re making assumptions and wishing the threats go away. It’s very disconcerting to me…They don’t want to burden the licensees.” 

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