Nuclear Energy Information Service
Illinois' Nuclear Power Watchdog for 25 Years

Reactors still unsafe 2 years after 9/11

PRESS RELEASE

For release: Thursday, September 11, 2003

Contact: David A. Kraft, Director

Nuclear Energy Information Svc.

neis@neis.org www.neis.org

(847)869-7650; -7658 fax

011-49-40-430-7332 direct

TWO YEARS AFTER 9-11, NUCLEAR REGULATORS MAY TOLERATE NUCLEAR “IN-SECURITY” – BUT THE PUBLIC NO LONGER WILL

EVANSTON, IL—Two years after the tragic attack on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, federal regulators still cannot publicly guarantee with certainty that nuclear reactors would be able to withstand real-world, 21^st Century terrorist assaults, a failing that seriously calls into question the wisdom of allowing expansion of the nuclear power industry, as the Bush Administration desires.

“The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has failed to publicly answer one of the most important questions coming out of the 9-11 attack: can nuclear reactors withstand a crash – terrorist or accidental -- involving today’s commercial or military aircraft without releasing large amounts of radiation?” notes David A. Kraft, director of the Evanston-based Nuclear Energy Information Service, Illinois’ nuclear power watchdog organization. “We’re two years after the fact, and they have failed to complete and make public the kind of rigorous study necessary to answer this question so critical to the safety and security of society, the economy and the environment,” Kraft charges.

For Illinois the question is not merely a perfunctory or abstract exercise in statistics, Kraft notes. “Illinois has more nuclear reactors and spent fuel pools – 14 -- than any other state. Ten reactors are situated closer to Chicago than Chernobyl was to Kiev,” Kraft points out. “Couple this with the facts that, the World’s busiest airport is no more than 30 flight-minutes away from any of these reactors at normal cruising speeds; and that government interrogation of captured al Qaida operatives and recent news reports confirm that nuclear plants are clearly potential targets of terrorist assaults, and you begin to understand the significance of this regulatory lapse for Illinois,” states Kraft.

“As a credible regulatory agency, the NRC is worse than a joke,” Kraft concludes. “Their presence provides the illusion of nuclear safety and security, without an iota of substance.”

These allegations come at a time when nationally, the Union of Concerned Scientists of Washington, D.C. – a national nuclear power watchdog group -- is preparing to deliver a “letter of ‘No Confidence’” to the NRC, challenging the agency on a long list of regulatory failures, gaffs and fiascoes. NEIS is a signatory to this letter, which will be delivered to the NRC next week.

In addition to the unresolved 9-11 security vulnerabilities tolerated by the NRC, the letter is also critical of ongoing operational incompetence and lack of regulatory concern on the part of the Agency, such as NRC’s indifference to allegations of safety and regulatory non-compliance issues like those of former Exelon engineer turned whistleblower Oscar Shirani. Shirani has alleged a massive quality assurance breakdown and cover-up at several of Exelon’s Illinois reactors; and alleges that NRC abets this cover-up (http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=16097) . A list of these allegations has been submitted to the office of Lt. Governor Patrick Quinn, recently tagged to head up a state committee to assess the reliability and vulnerability of Illinois electric system (see NEIS website, www.neis.org , for remarks submitted to the Lt. Governor’s office on this issue)..

Closer to home, NEIS has submitted this day petitions with signatures from thousands of Illinois citizens calling for greater regulation and supervision of the nuclear industry by the NRC (see website, www.neis.org, for copy of petition). Copies of these petitions were sent to several members of the Illinois delegation to Congress, to Gov. Rod Blagojevich, and to Lt. Governor Patrick Quinn.

“The public health, safety and welfare; the economy, and the environment can no longer be subjected to this egregious level of regulatory failure and incompetence. It comes at a time when Exelon Corporation – the nation’s largest nuclear utility -- is thinking of building new nuclear reactors in Illinois, and seeking license extensions for the 11 operating old ones, while simultaneously opposing the expansion of renewable energy resources in Illinois in the legislature,” Kraft observes.

“On this, the second anniversary of the tragic 9-11attack, we call on our Illinois delegation to Congress to provide REAL energy security, and protect their constituents in Illinois – the most nuclear reliant state in the US -- by either forcing the NRC to assertively regulate the nuclear industry and answer publicly the lingering question on nuclear safety posed by 9-11, left unresolved by NRC’s allergy to regulation; or abolish the NRC completely.

“We further call on Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich to use all levels of state government at his disposal to oppose the expansion of nuclear power in Illinois until these questions of nuclear safety and security are publicly investigated, debated, and resolved,” Kraft concluded.

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NEIS was founded in 1981 to provide the public with credible information on nuclear power hazards; and with information about viable alternatives to nuclear power.

For information on the Union of Concerned Scientists letter to the NRC, contact David Lochbaum, Union of Concerned Scientists, dlochbaum@ucsusa.org , or (202) 223-6133 x113

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