... Why else? Only because of the “virtual” fear of the “other” alternative safe energy resource secures their Arab oil as a commodity. Otherwise, the lack of American confidence in nuke power puts their business in jeopardy.
Enviro-terrorists will claim that nuclear energy is too risky. Furthering our dependence on foreign oil!

… your thoughts?

The "Greens" in some parts of Europe are already citing terrorism as another reason to shut down nuclear plants.

On the other hand, the French (which are heavily dependent on nuclear power due to a lack of alternative fuels) have responded by stationing anti-aircraft arty near their nuke plants. (Say what you want about the French, but they take no crap when it comes to nuke power).

... nor should we

Last time I heard France was 80% nuclear powered.

I work in the nuclear power industry (I can't comment publicly) might loose my clearance.
john

ok
john

... I believe we should shoot for at least 50%

Maybe if someone, who knew what they were doing, managed to gain access to the control room, they could run the reactor dry and meltdown the core?

I can neither confirm or deny...........

When WTC happened I said to a friend that if they had really wanted a body count & not symbolism they would have crashed one of the planes into a Nuke Power Plant.  Tthere's one abt 2 hrs away from me.  Think abt it, the fire/smoke/radiation traveling on the wind for Lord knows how many miles.  Think of the loss of life, the future cancer/diseases & such, contamination of drinking water.

Not to mention that 25% of my power comes from nuclear (according to what it said on my last bill).  I would imagine that they will try to hit strategic targets like that in the future.

Not saying it's right, but it's a war.  If the Taliban had a nuke plant we'd bomb the heck outta it....

Just one guys idea.

I have worked in 3 nuclear power plants.I have been in both types of reactors(Boiling Water Reactors BWR's and Pressurized Water Reactors PWR's).

Boiling Water reactor buildings have Extremely thick concrete walls 3-6ft thick. and a steel vessel 3-10inches thick. PWR'saslo have a great deal of concrete between the reactor and the outside. These are primarily for containment. But they also have siezmic ratings. I don't believe an soft metal airplane could penetrate both the concrete containment and the Containment Vessel.

The threat comes from how insecure they are. The government has been running tests for several years now with Navy Seals. The Seals break in and simulate a melt down or simulate extracting material for a nuke. And they simulate assembly and detonation too. They have always succeeded. No one at the plant even knew that they were there, even though all of these plants were forewarned of the security exercises.

And there is lots of intel that the Taliban specifically trained terrorist to take over a Nuclear Plant and cause a meltdown.

In a recent story that aired earlier this year, a news reporter took his small plane right over Three Mile Island without any alarm or law enforcement interception.

It's sounds like we got a bunch of Homer Simpsons running things right now. A very probable disaster looms over head and these guys just sit on their thumbs and spin.

the 3 plants I was in last year, most had armed guards, but they were low paid rental cops. Some very young.they looked like the were right outa high school. One former security guard who was ex military hand had moved to a better paying job inside the plant said the seals had infiltrated his plant and were completely unseen.
He said the the new private security company paid less than $10.00 @ hour.
The plant had a few security guards left that were employed directly by the utility and were very well paid, but they were being phased out because they cost too much.

Thats great, we got the SEALs beating the security at our nuclear power plants and the general public knows.

Does this mean, that maybe someone within the fed, could have made some recomendations as to how they might be able to actually secure these plants, against an attack.

As time goes by, I am becoming ore and more convinced our public servants are trying to
remove their muzzles, by using diversion tactics

Think about what you are saying here.  SEALS were able to break in. How many people with training equivilant to SEALS does Bin Laden have at his disposal? How many groups with their capabliity even exist in the whole WORLD? And why didnt he use them first instead of waiting until all the plants were surrounded by National Guardsmen as well?

At one of our nationa labs where nukes are stored and tested the security is treated like garbage. They are the lowest paid and laughed at by the people working there (who were only happy to see them on 9/11 )
The management strips them of all powers to do anything enforcement related. They are so cheap that they will not pay the FAA to have the air space above the facility changed to restricted airspace. So small planes still fly over the place even today.
Morale is extremely low. Turnover is high.
Since Sept 11 the officers have yet to recieve any briefings on any potential problems. They get their info from the news.
They use their tatical assault team to man the front gate to check ID's instead of regular officers. One only needs to kill the team at the gate and the force is cut in half already.
Ongoing training for SRT officers is on your own time.Saves them money.
Shooting and entry team skills need to be refreshed from time to time.
As far a getting back up from a local jurisdiction....forget it there is no crosstraining with outside agencies.Saves money.
All in the name of saving money.
So you think our nuclear weapons and bio stuff is really secure at labs like these? Its a joke.
Heres the real kicker. No weapons are to be taken off site. In the event of an attack all officers are to respond to the station (inside the facility already under attack ) and pick up their gear. Real smart.

Just my observation.

All I have to say is they are not SEALS and you guys haven't checked the figures. The OSRE's are not always won by the "SEALS' as Sodie points out if they fail an OSRE the plant is shut down untill its defficiencies are corrected we are not a bunch of homer simpsons and I know the OSRE's I have been a part of the "SEALS" did not win.  and for the record they are contract "ex-special forces" personal and I am not sure to what the amount of training they have.

john

My info comes directly from several guests interviewed on Foxnews recently. If they are wrong, then I guess my info may not be correct. I would hope that Fox would at least check their backgrounds before introducing them as experts on terrorism.

sodie we got a big e-mail regarding that news cast their figures were way off on the # of plants that actually fail their OSRE's The President of the Nuclear Electricty Instuite Wrote them a long letter pointing the incorrect information and I think he is still waiting on a reply. The other remark about The SEALS simulating stealing material for making a nuke is also incorrect.  Yes in the reaction process some of the U-235 is converted to plutonium but not enough to make a bomb.
john

The nuke they were talking about was "dirty". Not a fission bomb but an explosion just big enough to scatter fallout particles all over the nearest city.

It seems like a lot of work attacking a hardened target to achieve the same results that attacking another form of industry would result in.

john

The consensus is that virtually no plane, short of a military jet with bombs on board, could penetrate the hardened concrete shell of a nuke plant.

I agree.

Personally, I don't care for nuclear power. I'd rather see much more water, wind, solar, and even "tidal" power. The latter three represent zero harmful effects to the environment and are renewable to the point that we can safely say they will never run out.

Hell, one large dam makes enough juice to power LA. Think of the possibilities.

Hate to break it to you guys, but removing material from a reactor and making a bomb out of it is a real longshot.  Without going into details, there is a term known as "self protecting". And yes "I KNOW".