Radiological Weapons: German Police to Guard Waste Shipment

More than 15,000 German police officers will be available to help guard a shipment next week of nuclear waste from France to a storage site in Germany, officials said yesterday.  In the wake of renewed warnings on the threat to nuclear facilities, European governments have increased protections at sites within their borders, according to recent reports.

A shipment of six containers of nuclear waste from a reprocessing plant in France is scheduled to arrive at a storage site in Gorleben, Germany.  Anti-nuclear activists have said they would disrupt the shipment (Reuters/Planet Ark, Nov. 8).  Militant anti-nuclear activists are suspected to be responsible for a fire under an iron bridge in late October along the waste shipment route, German police said.  The stretch of railway has been a frequent target of activists, who had earlier been able to delay shipments of nuclear waste by chaining themselves to the tracks, according to Reuters.

Nuclear waste shipments were stopped for several years because of safety concerns, but were restarted after plans were made to phase out nuclear power in Germany, according to Reuters (Reuters/Planet Ark, Oct. 25).

Europe Reviews Nuclear Plant Security

European governments said they are reviewing security at nuclear facilities after a warning last week from the International Atomic Energy Agency (see GSN, Nov. 2).  An act of nuclear terrorism was far more likely than previously thought, said IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei (Reuters/Planet Ark, Nov. 2). 

In Great Britain, military reserve forces may be deployed to defend nuclear plants, the Ministry of Defense said Monday.  British Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon ordered a reevaluation of the 1998 strategic defense review that will concentrate on “homeland defense,” an official said Sunday. “I think there may emerge from this review a greater role for a military presence in the UK,” Hoon said.  “I would not want to use regular forces for that purpose.  I can see the [Territorial Army] may be involved in that.”

Royal Air Force fighter jets have been ordered to intercept any aircraft hijacked by terrorists approaching London and the joint RAF-army nuclear, biological and chemical regiment is on standby in the event of a terrorist attack using chemical or biological weapons, according to the London Guardian (Richard Norton-Taylor, London Guardian, Nov. 5).  

British Energy, the country’s largest nuclear power generator, told the government no-fly zones should be put in place over the company’s power plants.  Interest in nuclear plant security increased after several media organizations flew over the company’s nuclear power plants with small aircraft and helicopters, said British Energy spokesman Bob Fenton.  “There are media stunts going on at the moment, but I am not sure what they prove,” Fenton said.  “We could have told them there are not any no-fly zones.”

 Some nuclear sites, such as military installations and several power plants run by British Nuclear Fuels, did have no-fly zones, according to the Civil Aviation Authority.  “The CAA can put in place no-fly zones, but the request has to come from the government,” a CAA spokeswoman said (Reuters/Planet Ark, Nov. 5).

France

France has tightened security around the country’s most dangerous nuclear facilities, according to TerraViva.  New security precautions include radar units and anti-aircraft missiles deployed around France’s main nuclear reprocessing plant at La Hague.  The minimum flying zone for airplanes over the plant has been raised to 1,000 meters, according to TerraViva.  Radar units and missiles have also been deployed at the French nuclear submarine harbor at Brest.

In protests in several cities throughout France two weeks ago, more than 10,000 demonstrators called on the government to give up nuclear power.  “For more than 20 years now, people laughed at us because we warned that a plane accident could destroy a nuclear power plant,” said Green Party Secretary Dominique Voynet, who led demonstrations in Lyon.  “We didn’t have in mind terrorism, we didn’t think of a big plane, such as a jumbo, seized by terrorists and loaded with hundreds of tonnes of fuel,” Voynet said.  “Now everyone, who laughed at us, wants to prevent such an attack” (Inter Press Service/TerraViva, Nov. 8).

Russia

Russian Defense Ministry staff were being trained to deal with chemical and biological weapons along with the threat of “nuclear terrorism,” Viktor Kholstov, head of the Radiation, Chemical and Bacteriological Defense Forces, said last week.

“[We are taking] measures for the preparation of our staff so that they will be able to understand and identify the threats,” Kholstov said.  “There are detective stories about transporting nuclear substances.  But we should take into consideration the possibility of such a situation in real life” (Reuters/Planet Ark, Nov. 5).

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