Radiological Weapons:  IAEA Sends Team to Nigeria To Help Track Down Missing Material

The International Atomic Energy Agency has sent a team to Nigeria to help authorities there track down two missing devices that contain cesium-137, BBC News reported today (see GSN, Feb. 26).  The devices, used to X-ray oil pipelines for cracks, have been missing since December and are believed to have been stolen from or fallen off of a transport vehicle in the Niger Delta region, a Nigerian Nuclear Regulatory Authority official said (BBC News, Feb. 27).

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Nuclear Waste:  NRC Prepares New Tests for Spent Fuel Shipping Casks

By Mike Nartker
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission released this month a proposal for new tests to determine the security of spent nuclear fuel shipping casks against “extreme” road and rail accidents (see GSN, Sept. 20, 2002).

The proposed tests, part of the NRC’s Package Performance Study, are meant to help reassure public confidence in the safety of spent-fuel shipments and to assess previous computer accident models, a commission official told Global Security Newswire yesterday.  Nuclear energy industry representatives have supported the new tests, but other experts said the proposed tests do not sufficiently address terrorism concerns.

Under current NRC regulations, spent-fuel shipping containers must be able to survive a series of test that include a 30-foot fall onto an unyielding surface and a 30-minute immersion in a fully engulfing fire.  The casks are generally tested through a combination of computer modeling and tests on scale-models or cask components.

The NRC proposal calls for conducting additional drop and fire tests and for using only full-scale casks.  The new tests would drop the casks from greater heights and a variety of angles.  These tests would be conducted at speeds between 60 to 95 miles per hour, with the commission proposing they occur at a speed of about 75 miles per hour.  Under current commission guidelines, impact tests are conducted at a speed of about 30 miles per hour, according to Edwin Lyman, president of the Nuclear Control Institute, a nuclear activist group.

The updated fire tests would subject casks to fire for longer than the current half-hour test, but the NRC did not provide details as to the exact proposed time-span.

The commission has proposed the new tests to increase public confidence in the security of spent fuel shipments and to better assess current computer models, said Andrew Murphy, NRC senior technical adviser for earth sciences and engineering.  In its proposal, the NRC noted public attention to spent-fuel shipments has increased, in part, because of the likelihood that shipments will increase, particularly when the proposed Yucca Mountain repository in Nevada is opened (see GSN, May 22, 2002). 

The commission has contracted the Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico to conduct the proposed tests, which will be performed on one rail cask and one road cask, Murphy said.  The tests should be completed 18 to 24 months from the beginning of June.

The NRC has released the details on the proposed tests to obtain public comment, Murphy said.  He added that the commission would present the proposed tests in a series of eight public forums that are to be held over the next three weeks.

The nuclear energy industry is supportive of the proposed tests and the NRC’s aim of increasing public confidence in the safety of spent-fuel shipments, said Rod McCullum, senior project manager for used fuel management at the Nuclear Energy Institute, the main lobbying organization for the nuclear industry.  These tests should help reassure the public to “what the engineers know”:  that the shipping casks are secure, he said, adding that NEI is currently examining the commission’s proposal.

Lyman, who has often advocated for increased security of spent nuclear fuel, offered tentative praise for the proposed tests (see GSN, Jan. 31).  The increased impact speeds that the casks would be subjected to is a significant improvement because the proposed speeds are more realistic, Lyman said, noting that U.S. highway speed limits have increased since the 1960s, when the regulations were first completed. 

The proposed fire tests, however, are still inadequate because there are a number of real-life examples of fires that burn longer than an hour, Lyman said.  One of the most vulnerable components of a spent-fuel shipping casks is the rubber seal between the lid and the body, which has been found to melt when subjected to a fire of 800 degrees Celsius for about an hour, he said.  Once that seal is damaged, gaseous fissile materials and aerosolized cesium particles could be released, Lyman said.

Terrorism

The proposed tests also do not address factors that spent-fuel shipping casks could be subjected to during a terrorist attack, such as an attack involving a shaped charge or an anti-tank missile, Lyman said. 

The NRC is conducting a separate study, “significantly divorced” from the Package Performance Study, to examine the vulnerability of casks to sabotage, Murphy said.  One reason why terrorist scenarios were not included in the proposed test factors was that their inclusion might have resulted in less public interaction, because of the use of sensitive information, and would in turn defeat the purpose of the new tests, he said. 

The nuclear energy industry also defended the lack of terrorism-related scenarios in the proposed tests.  More can be learned by subjecting a cask to a broad range of factors than by designing a large number of tests for every possible scenario, McCullum said, adding that the speculation on such scenarios could be “endless.”  He added that by validating the current transportation accident models, similar assumptions could be made on the models used to assess the vulnerability of casks to intentional attacks.  While U.S. residents are now more concerned about possible acts of terrorism, they have had more experience with road and rail accidents, which is the main focus of their concern, McCullum said.

Lyman said he understood the potential need to evaluate terrorism risks to shipping casks in a separate study, but he criticized the NRC for conducted such tests “behind closed doors.”  While terrorists should not be provided a “cookbook” on how to attack a spent-fuel shipping casks, they probably already know how to do so, Lyman said.  The general U.S. public, however, needs to be aware of the risks, he said.

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Radiological Weapons: Nigeria Asks IAEA for Help in Finding Missing Material

Nigeria has requested assistance from the International Atomic Energy Agency to recover radioactive material missing from oil operations in the southern part of the country, the Associated Press reported today.

“We have ... informed the International Atomic Energy Agency in case somebody stole it and wants to take it outside Nigeria,” Shams Elegba, head of Nigeria’s nuclear regulatory body, said yesterday.

Nigeria alerted residents in a broadcast last week that an oil company had reported the loss of radioactive material from its operations in the southern Niger Delta region, AP reported.  Radioactive materials used in oil operations include cesium-137, which could be used in a “dirty bomb” (see GSN, Feb. 20). 

Nigerian officials are concerned that potential terrorists might have obtained the material, Elegba said.  All security agencies have been placed on alert, he added (Associated Press/Environmental News Network, Feb. 26).

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