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

Nuclear Watchdog Report Highlights Reactor Security Weaknesses

PRESS RELEASE

For release:	For information:
Monday, October 22, 2001 12 noon	David A. Kraft, NEIS, 847-869-7650

NUKE WATCHDOG CALLS ON CONGRESS
FOR REACTOR SECURITY CHANGES

EVANSTON- An Illinois nuclear power watchdog organization released a report today calling on Congress to institute major changes in security at nuclear reactor sites.

The report, "Here Today, THERE Tomorrow: Commercial Nuclear Reactor Sites as Terrorist Targets," chronicles a history of poor security oversight by the nation's nuclear utilities and the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), and the potential for reactors to become terrorist targets.

"Reactors can no longer be discussed as merely another energy source. They now must be seen as potential and extremely lethal targets, World Trade Centers with 1,000 Hiroshima's worth of radiation inside them," the Report warns.

"The NRC has been grossly negligent on reactor safety and security," asserts Dave Kraft, director of the Evanston-based Nuclear Energy Information Service. "NRC has catered to every industry whim to weaken reactor security against terrorist threat. We may have just dodged a bullet on September 11th," Kraft observes, referring to the suicide airliner attack that destroyed the World Trade Center and damaged the Pentagon.

NEIS is calling on the Illinois delegation to lead the effort to overhaul lax standards of the "design basis threat" for reactors, to strengthen the ability for reactors to resist terrorist assault.

The group also is calling on Exelon Corporation to abandon plans to build future reactors without the benefit of reinforced containment buildings. A formal request letter has been sent to Exelon with this request.

"For reactors to be allowed to operate in the future, they will have to be able to meet real-world threats and challenges," Kraft maintains. "If they can't, they should be shut down, and replaced with energy efficiency and renewable energy resources, which pose a far lower terrorist threat."

The full report can be obtained online at: http://www.neis.org

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