Energy Probe

NOW magazine
October 18, 2001

Recent claims in the media about Canada’s nuclear reactors being sitting ducks for a terrorist attack prompted Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL), the Crown corporation that runs the facilities, to issue a formal statement Tuesday, October 16. It claims that a repeat of the World Trade Center attacks is highly unlikely because Canada’s reactors “are small targets, and it would take a high degree of skill to achieve a direct impact on a single unit.”

The statement continues, “While assessments are ongoing, we believe that the Candu (reactor) has a considerable resistance against aircraft impact.”

Energy Probe executive director Tom Adams is not convinced. He says security in general around nuclear facilities is lax, and consideration of emergency planning is given short shrift. A provincial task force concluded as much in the late 80s, post-Chernobyl, but its recommendations were shelved.

Adams says Canada’s nuclear facilities should be shut down temporarily while security is upgraded and alternative power sources are brought online.

As it stands, Adams says, “We’ve got serious vulnerabilities on the power grid.”

AECL spokesperson Louise Duhamel says the doomsday scenario Adams and others have painted is just not on.

Harvey Wasserman
Cleveland Free Times
October 17, 2001

 Northern Ohio’s ticking time bombs

Two gigantic nuke bombs are ticking in northern Ohio, fully available to terrorists.

They are the Perry and Davis-Besse nuclear plants, which are essentially indefensible. And the debate over the vulnerability of such reactors has raged for more than three decades. Given what we now know, they should be shut down immediately.

The hijacked planes that wrought such tragic havoc on September 11 flew over or near more than a dozen reactors. Had one of the jets that crashed into the World Trade Center hit the reactors at Indian Point, 40 miles up the Hudson River, the devastation that would have resulted could only have been described as apocalyptic. As recently reported on 60 Minutes, the governors of New York and New Jersey have now stationed National Guardsmen at the reactors.

But it’s hard to imagine how Guardsmen could have protected the sites. Two operating reactors at Indian Point and their huge spent fuel pool all would have melted down, releasing a gigantic radioactive cloud dwarfing those unleashed at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. Small children in the immediate area would have died en masse. Pregnant women would have spontaneously aborted. Those babies that survived the pregnancies would have been born horribly deformed. Adults in all nearby towns would have begun dying immediately, with the death toll within the first few years stretching into the hundreds of thousands. As at Chernobyl, the cloud would have found its way into the jetstream and around the planet (all human beings today inhale radioactive particles from Chernobyl and Three Mile Island).

With the ensuing waves of cancers, leukemias and genetic malformations, millions more ultimately would have been afflicted by a terrorist nuke hit on September 11. All of New York City would have been turned into a radioactive wasteland. The World Trade Center would today be just as unusable and far more lethal had those jets hit Indian Point instead of the towers.

Similar horrors remain tragically possible at Perry and Davis-Besse. Though security has been somewhat beefed up since 9/11, the reactors are ultimately unguardable. No containment dome anywhere can withstand the kind of crashes delivered to the WTC and the Pentagon.

But even without hitting a dome, and even without using a jet, the ability of terrorists to take down nuclear reactors is all too doable. Cooling systems, backup power generators, communications networks and too much more are vulnerable. Both Perry and Davis-Besse have large pools onsite containing thousands of tons of extremely radioactive spent fuel rods. These rods are not covered by containment domes. They must constantly be cooled with complex systems, and any disaster involving the operating systems of the reactors would almost certainly be accompanied by a parallel disaster in the spent fuel repositories — and vice-versa — making the whole intertwined network hugely vulnerable.

In the face of such a catastrophe, all northern Ohioans would be sitting ducks. Evacuation is a complete impossibility. In the 1980s, a special commission appointed by then-Governor Richard Celeste made it abundantly clear that even with substantial warning, the millions living along the north coast would be unable to escape from a radioactive cloud caused by an accident at Perry or Davis-Besse. With a terrorist attack, even the few hours’ warning expected during an accidental meltdown would disappear.

Thus, as the nation is driven crazy by anthrax powder, the threat from reactor sabotage dwarfs anything the human race has ever faced. Nationwide, we get just 18 percent of our electricity from nukes, just 8 percent of our total energy. Nuclear power can be easily replaced by increased efficiency and the use of other sources. Both Perry and Davis-Besse have been offline for months at a time without noticeable impact on northern Ohio’s accessibility to electricity.

But an attack on either one of these plants could turn the entire Great Lakes region into a radioactive version of the World Trade Center. It’s time they were shut down.

Martin Mittelstaedt
Globe and Mail
October 16, 2001

The CF-18 fighter planes that have recently been stationed at the Trenton, Ont., air-force base are there in part to help protect Ontario’s nuclear stations from air attacks, according to environmental and municipal sources.

John Mutton, mayor of Clarington, a suburban community at the eastern end of the Greater Toronto Area, said Defence Minister Art Eggleton has contacted him, indicating that the fighter planes would be available to protect atomic plants.

Mr. Mutton wrote to Mr. Eggleton last month, expressing concern about the security of the Darlington nuclear plant located in his municipality.

“I’m a hell of a lot happier that [the aircraft] are there,” Mr. Mutton said yesterday in a telephone interview.

Mr. Eggleton outlined the increased security in a reply to Mr. Mutton.

“For operational security reasons, the location and readiness posture of CF-18 aircraft are classified.

However, I assure you that these aircraft are capable of quickly responding to an airborne threat to the Darlington nuclear plant,” Mr. Eggleton wrote.

Peter Calamai
Toronto Star
October 14, 2001

OTTAWA — The unusual design of Candu nuclear power stations like Pickering makes them peculiarly vulnerable to a terrorist attack, says the author of an accident risk study prepared for a Senate committee.

Consultant Gordon Thompson said in an interview Friday that Ontario’s nuclear stations were “susceptible” because the multiple reactors at each station rely on common systems for emergency core cooling and for vacuum containment.

Most of the world’s 400 nuclear generating stations have individual safety systems for each reactor unit, even at stations with two or more reactors.

But the shared Candu safety systems mean that a severe earthquake or an act of malice such as a terrorist attack could cause breaches at all eight nuclear reactors that make up the 2,300-megawatt station, Thompson said.

“The scenario of an eight-reactor accident has never been examined by anyone in Canada, basically because it is too uncomfortable, I imagine,” he said.

A self-described nuclear skeptic, Thompson heads the Institute for Resource and Security Studies, a small think-tank in Cambridge, Mass. He studied Ontario reactor safety in 1988 for a provincial government inquiry and also for an environmental coalition in 1993.

Thompson said risk assessment studies are necessary to estimate the consequences of a multi-reactor accident at an Ontario nuclear plant.

Depending on the robustness of fire and electrical systems, radioactive debris could be released, he said. He agrees with an American assessment that existing reactors — either U.S. or Canadian — were not designed to withstand the explosive force of a commercial aircraft laden with jet fuel.

The aircraft could knock out the shared safety systems or overload them by causing ruptures, he said.

In June, the Senate committee recommended that Ontario Power Generation be ordered by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission to conduct a full-scale analysis of probable risks at Pickering. Both the federal agency and the utility said a study was unnecessary.

The nuclear safety commission is just now finishing an analysis of the enhanced security measures that it ordered on Sept. 11 for about 30 Class One nuclear installations across Canada, including Candu power reactors in Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick.

`The scenario of an eight-reactor accident has never been examined by anyone in Canada, basically because it is too uncomfortable, I imagine.’ – Gordon Thompson

Commission president Linda Keen plans to meet operators of the power reactors and other major nuclear installations in Ottawa within the next few weeks to discuss even more stringent security measures, according to officials at the federal regulatory agency.

These new measures will be based in part on two security reports that the agency commissioned in late 1999 and early 2000. The reports deal with possible sabotage at nuclear power plants and identifying vital areas within Candu reactors.

The commission is initially focusing on short-term safety improvements, said Jim Blyth, manager of the agency’s terrorism response. “We’re certainly not ruling out design changes, but they need to be carefully considered,” Blyth said.

Thompson stressed that an eight-reactor accident wouldn’t necessarily be eight times worse than the rupture of a single reactor elsewhere, because of differences in the production of radioactive materials.

He estimated that a hypothetical Pickering catastrophe could release twice as much cesium-137 as the 1,000-megawatt reactor that exploded at Chernobyl in 1986. This isotope is the longest-lived of the radioactive contamination released at Chernobyl, with a half-life of 30 years.

Ontario also has another eight-reactor station at Bruce on Lake Huron and a four-reactor station at Darlington, 75 kilometres east of Toronto.

In Ottawa yesterday, the RCMP weren’t saying much about a report of a Kuwaiti man found with documents detailing an Atomic Energy Canada building and a federal disease- and virus-control site, Canadian Press reports.

U.S. agents were briefed in Canada, according to the Los Angeles Times.

“It’s part of an ongoing investigation and we’re not in a position to provide any details right now,” said Serge Lalonde, an RCMP spokesperson in Ottawa.

It is unclear which buildings the documents may have detailed.

Peter Cheney
Globe and Mail
October 13, 2001

Investigators probing the Sept. 11 terror attacks have been told that a Kuwaiti man was found with documents detailing Canadian atomic-energy facilities and disease-control labs.

U.S. agents were briefed in Canada regarding a 36-year-old Kuwaiti, whose belongings include documents that identify at least two Ottawa facilities, including an Atomic Energy Canada building and a federal disease- and virus-control site, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times.

Federal Bureau of Investigation officials said they could not release more information.

The discovery of the documents detailing the Ottawa buildings adds weight to growing concerns that Canada may have been targeted by terrorists.

RCMP representatives said they could not confirm the arrest of the Kuwaiti. But they said infiltration of nuclear facilities has been identified as a major theme in the investigation of the threat that looms over North America.

“That is certainly part of what we are looking at,” RCMP spokesman Corporal Eric Simard said. “Aside from that, we can only say that is an ongoing criminal investigation and that details cannot be released.”

It is unclear which buildings the Kuwaiti man’s documents may have detailed. The Los Angeles Times report refers to “documents that identified specific buildings in an Ottawa government complex – notably the atomic-energy building and the virus- and disease-control labs.”

Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. has a low-level radiation-management facility in Ottawa, but no Health Canada buildings are nearby.

Health Canada has a nuclear-emergency lab in Ottawa, but it is not in the main complex with its other labs.

Health Canada has several labs, including the Laboratory Centre for Disease Control, at the Tunney’s Pasture complex of government offices in west Ottawa.

Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. has offices in Ottawa, but the nearest full-fledged nuclear facility is at AECL’s Chalk River laboratories, about 200 kilometres northwest of Ottawa, where researchers handle enriched uranium.

Last month, a researcher at the Chalk River laboratory was turned over to the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service.

AECL refused to release details, except to say that the researcher had been fired after his security clearance had been revoked. RCMP representatives confirmed that their investigation had taken them to the Chalk River facility.

“Following the terrorist attack, we’re following up a number of leads,” RCMP spokeswoman Louise Lafrance said. “Chalk River – I can confirm that we were there.”

Any vulnerability of nuclear facilities has sparked concern on several fronts. Yesterday, the Toronto-based lobby group Energy Probe urged the shutdown of nuclear-reactor sites because of the terrorist threat.

“A terrorist attack on a nuclear-power station, when operating, could kill tens of thousands,” said Tom Adams, executive director of Energy Probe.

“An attack on a reactor station that has been temporarily shut down eliminates the risk of a terrorist-induced meltdown.”

In the United States, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said it was shutting down its Web site over concerns that it could be used by terrorists to gather information, including the location of nuclear generating plants.

“In support of our mission to protect public health and safety, we are performing a review of all material on our site. We appreciate your patience and understanding during these difficult times,” the agency said before taking its site off-line.

Norman Rubin
Toronto Star
October 12, 2001

Re Ontario criticized over nuclear disaster plan, Oct. 4.

Canadian Nuclear Safety Commissioner Chris Barnes is right to be “incredulous” and “amazed” that Ontario still has no nuclear emergency plan.

But Barnes’ own commission has contributed to this hazardous situation by refusing to insist that Canada’s reactors have emergency plans before the commission grants them a licence to operate.

Obviously, reactors without an adequate emergency plan cannot be considered to be safe to operate — yet the Nuclear Safety Commission continues to certify them as safe, by blithely licensing them to operate.

Moreover, in 1987, an Ontario government working group recommended that Ontario’s Nuclear Emergency Plan should be redesigned to respond to the enormous radiation leak that would result from a sophisticated terrorist “hijacking” of a CANDU nuclear generating station like the one in Pickering, just outside Toronto.

In response, Ontario Hydro aggressively lobbied the Ontario government with all its resources, from the chairman down to junior staff, to defeat that sensible and prudent proposal.

As a result, the emergency plan that Barnes impatiently awaits is grossly inadequate to respond to the threat we now face.

I sincerely hope Barnes can convince his colleagues on the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission to do something about this deplorable situation, and not just to express amazement at it.

Tom Adams

October 12, 2001

Mike Harris, Premier of Ontario

Dear Mr. Premier,

Because of the threat of a terrorist attack, we urge you to immediately order the temporary shutdown of the 12 nuclear power reactors now operable in Ontario. Ontario can rely on additional coal-fired and oil-fired production and, if necessary, electricity imports from neighboring provinces to meet our needs for the immediate future. Ontario is in a period of low electricity demand and has substantial fossil generating and import capacity at this time, allowing you to take this precautionary move without interrupting service to customers.

A terrorist attack on a nuclear power station, when operating, could kill tens of thousands of Ontarians and cause hundreds of billions of dollars in damage to property. An attack on a reactor that has been temporarily shut down poses no risk of a terrorist induced meltdown.

Having taken a decision to put Ontario’s reactors in safe condition, we urge you to publicly announce this fact as a further measure to reduce risk to Ontarians.

Sincerely,

Tom Adams
Executive Director

Tom Adams

October 12, 2001

Bernard Lord, Premier of New Brunwick

Dear Mr. Premier,

Because of the threat of a terrorist attack, we urge you to immediately order the temporary shutdown of the Point Lepreau reactor now operating in New Brunswick. New Brunswick can rely on additional coal-fired or oil-fired production, or electricity imports from Quebec and Nova Scotia for the immediate future. New Brunswick has substantial surplus generating and import capacity at this time, allowing you to take this precautionary move without interrupting service to customers.

A terrorist attack on New Brunswick’s nuclear power station, when operating, could kill thousands of people in the region and cause many billions of dollars in damage to property. An attack on a reactor that has been temporarily shut down poses no risk of a terrorist induced meltdown.

Having taken a decision to put New Brunswick’s reactor in safe condition, we urge you to announce this fact as a further measure to reduce risk to local citizens.

Sincerely,

Tom Adams
Executive Director

Tom Adams

October 12, 2001

Bernard Landry, Premier Ministre du Québec

Dear Mr. Premier,

Because of the threat of a terrorist attack, we urge you to immediately order the temporary shutdown of the Gentille II reactor now operable in Québec. Hydrology conditions are improving in Québec and the province can also rely on additional oil-fired production if needed for the immediate future. You can take this precautionary move without interrupting service to customers.

A terrorist attack on a nuclear power station, when operating, could kill thousands of people in the region and cause billions of dollars in damage to property. An attack on a reactor that has been temporarily shut down poses no risk of a terrorist induced meltdown.

Having taken a decision to put Québec’s reactor in safe condition, we urge you to publicly announce this fact as a further measure to reduce risk to Quebeckers.

Sincerely,

Tom Adams
Executive Director