(Cliff Notes answer: Sixty million curies of radioactive waste were released at Chernobyl in 1986. There’s over 36 billion curies of radioactive waste stored in US spent fuel pools, or about 600 Chernobyls worth…)
Well, the answer you get depends on who you ask. Nuclear critic Dr. Frank von Hippel of Princeton stirred up this ongoing debate with a recent news release timed for Valentine’s Day that stated the consequences of such a terrorist crash and subsequent fire would be the release of a radiation plume that could contaminate eight to 70 times more land than the area affected by the 1986 accident in Chernobyl. The cost of such a disaster would run into the hundreds of billions of dollars. “The NRC has been chewing on this for 20 years,” said von Hippel. “That’s one of the reasons why we did this paper — because they never seem to do anything about it.”
Not to be outdone, the Nuclear Energy Institute released a little Valentine of their own back to Dr. Hippel entitled “NEI criticizes fear-mongering by authors of used fuel paper”. The subtitle reads “Nuclear plant security is robust” and continues, “The likelihood of a successful terrorist attack against used nuclear fuel structures is miniscule…By ignoring the hazards at other industrial sites that are not nearly as well protected as nuclear power plants, the authors are adding nothing to the nation’s homeland security efforts.” The release quotes statements by NEI Vice President Scott Peterson.
The truth? “The nuclear waste challenge is like no other”. If you’re interested in this sort of thing, a good place to follow the continuing saga is NucNews…
Incredible! (rickyjames sure doesn’t miss much!) I couldn’t see it at first, but it is the ALT text for the EIA logo at the top of the page. Very unprofessional… quite disappointing to see this on a .gov site. Our tax dollars at work… :-(
It is really quite amazing the tactics some will resort to in order to sensationalize their story, yours is no exception. First off is the idea that spent fuel pools are “makeshift.” To the contrary, the pools are designed quite well and are not an afterthought. They are a required part of the design of a nuclear power plant and therefore subjec to the same oversight from the NRC. Additionally, spent fuel pools “at virtually every reactor site in the US” are not full. If they were indeed full then the plant would no longer be operating. It is a requirement that there be enough space in the pool for any fuel in use and any fuel to be used in the future. So, if your statement were true, none of the currently operating plants would be operating. So, again, a patently false statement. Your next piece of sensationalism is the idea that fuel stored in a fuel pool is of the same level of threat as that in a reactor in use. Have you had any basic nuclear theory classes? The differences here are just to numerous to address in this limited space. I will acknowledge that the current situation regarding storage of spent fuel is a problem and there needs to be a solution. Your sensationalism and scare tactics does not contribute to a rational discussion of the facts needed to resolve the matter.