A terrorist attack on the British Sellafield nuclear reprocessing center could release 100 times the radiation of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident and make areas around the plant uninhabitable for generations, a nuclear expert said Wednesday (see GSN, Oct. 1).

Gordon Thompson of the Institute for Resource and Security Studies told the House of Commons defense committee that terrorists could use a bomb, missile, plane or sabotage to cause a large release of radioactivity.  Sellafield’s tanks of highly radioactive waste that must constantly be cooled are the facility’s most vulnerable spot, he said.  An airplane could penetrate the site’s buildings, which are almost 50 years old.

Such an attack would deem land downwind of Sellafield uninhabitable, and many people would have increased risk of cancer due to the fallout.  Another possible consequence would be pollution of the Irish Sea from liquid waste, Thompson said.

Neither the nuclear industry nor the British government has taken sufficient action to assess or reduce the threat, Thompson said.  The Defense Ministry said, however, that fighter planes are prepared to shoot down a hijacked plane.

“A civilian nuclear facility is a potential radiological weapon if the facility contains a large amount of radioactive material that can be released into the environment,” Thompson said, adding that the B215 facility at Sellafield is an example.

“This facility houses 21 steel tanks and associated equipment in above-ground concrete cells,” he said.  “The tanks contain high-level radioactive waste in the form of self-heating, acidic liquid that requires continuous cooling and agitation.”  The tanks contain 2,400 kilograms of cesium-137, which caused most of the off-site radiation exposure after the Chernobyl accident, Thompson said (Brown/Norton-Taylor, Guardian, Jan. 10).

About Newswire  |  Contact National Journal  |  Re-Use Guidelines

HOME  |  CONTACT US  |  GET INVOLVED  |  SITE MAP

Back to top