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 WASHINGTON
- Fuel storage pools at nuclear power plants in 31 states
may be vulnerable to terrorist attacks that could unleash
raging fires and deadly radiation, scientists advised
the government on Wednesday.
The group of nuclear experts said neither
the government nor the nuclear industry "adequately
understands the vulnerabilities and consequences of such
an event." They recommended undertaking a plant-by-plant
examination of fuel storage security as soon as possible.
In the meantime, plant operators promptly
should reconfigure used fuel rods in the storage pools
to lower decay-heat intensity and install spray devices
to reduce the risk of a fire should a storage facility
be attacked, the scientists said.
Congress sought the study by a National
Academy of Science panel because of the heightened concerns
that terrorists might seek to target nuclear power plants.
The release Wednesday of a declassified version of the
report followed months of debate with the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission over how much of the findings should remain
secret, and therefore, unavailable to potential terrorists.
At 68 plants, including some already shut
down, in 31 states, thousands of used reactor fuel rods
are in deep water pools. Dry, concrete casks hold a smaller
number of these rods.
 Much
more highly radioactive fuel is stored in pools than is
in the more protected reactors - 103 in total - at these
sites.
Some scientists and nuclear watchdog groups
long have contended that these pools pose a much greater
danger to a catastrophic attack than do the reactors themselves.
Some plants where pools are all or partially
underground present less of a problem. Others, including
a series of boiling-water reactors where pools are more
exposed, represent greater concern, said Bob Alvarez,
a former Energy Department official who has argued for
increased protection of used reactor fuel at nuclear plants.
The experts' report "pretty well
legitimizes what we've been saying," Alvarez said
in an interview.
The scientific panel said reinforced concrete
storage pools - 25 feet to 45 feet deep, with water circulating
to keep the fuel assemblies from overheating - could tempt
terrorists.
The report said an aircraft or high explosive
attack could cause water to drain from the pools and expose
the fuel rods, unleashing an uncontrollable fire and large
amounts of radiation.
Nuclear regulators said they would give
the report's recommendations "serious consideration."
But the NRC has disputed many findings and suggestions
from the experts.
 After
the classified document was provided to members of Congress
last month, the NRC's chairman told lawmakers in a letter
that some of the panel's assessments about plants' vulnerabilities
were "unreasonable" and that certain conclusions
"lacked sound technical basis."
"Today, spent fuel is better protected
than ever," Nils Diaz wrote.
The NRC said it believes the potential
for large releases of radiation from such a fire "to
be extremely low." Still, the agency has advised
reactor operations to consider refiguring the pools' fuel
rods - pairing new ones with older ones to reduce the
heat.
Kevin Crowley, the scientific panel's
staff director, said the classified version of the report
includes "some attack scenarios well within the means
of terrorists" that could result in a catastrophic
fire of spent fuel.
Nuclear safety advocates said the report
recognizes, for the first time, the vulnerability of spent
fuel.
David Lochbaum, a nuclear industry watchdog
for the Union of Concerned Scientists, said the study
makes clear that regulators have not acted aggressively
enough.
"Three years after 9/11, our hope
would have been more of that homework had been done,"
Lochbaum said.
The industry says its system of storing
the fuel is safe and protected. But in response to the
report, the industry said it was "assessing the potential
to augment" safety systems for spent fuel facilities.
Marvin Fertel, a senior executive at the
Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry's trade group,
said a computer analysis the industry commissioned in
2002 showed that fuel pool structures would withstand,
without a significant loss of water, the impact of an
aircraft crash.
But the study said the pools vary among
plants and reactor designs, and that some are more vulnerable
than others.
The panel said dry cask storage provides
better protection. It also said significant numbers of
used fuel rods always will have to be stay in pools for
as long as five years before they adequately cool. At
least one-quarter of the power plants now have some of
their spent fuel in dry casks.
The panel said the government should look
into more widespread use of dry cask storage as part of
its detailed assessment of risks.
The academy is a private organization
chartered by Congress to advise the government of scientific
matters.
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