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Published on Friday, November 2, 2001 by OneWorld/UK
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Nuclear Industry Responds to
Terror 'Wake-up Call' |
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by Daniel Nelson |
| Reports of a United States hunt "for
six men of Middle Eastern appearance" carrying plans of a nuclear power
plant and the trans-Alaska oil pipeline are focusing attention on
international talks Friday on combating the threat of nuclear terrorism.
"The willingness of terrorists to commit suicide to achieve their evil aims makes the nuclear terrorism threat 10 times greater than it was before September 11," Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), warned ahead of the Vienna meeting of nuclear experts which opened earlier this week. He said the September 11 attacks on the U.S. had been a wake-up call about the dangers of lack of security in the nuclear industry. The IAEA had begun an anti-terrorism review of all its activities and was considering a Fund for Protection Against Nuclear Terrorism. The world had suffered two nuclear shocks already, said ElBaradei, referring to the Chernobyl accident in Ukraine and the discovery of Iraq's clandestine nuclear weapons program. "It is vital we do all in our power to prevent the third," he warned. In recent days, the U.S. has banned all flights below 18,000 feet and within 10 miles of nuclear reactors. Harvey Wasserman, co-author of the book "Killing Our Own: The Disaster of America's Experience with Atomic Radiation", says that as the bombs fall on Afghanistan, "the certainty of terror retaliation inside America has turned our 103 nuclear power plants into weapons of apocalyptic destruction, just waiting to be used against us." One or both the planes that crashed into the World Trade Center on September 11 could easily have obliterated the two atomic reactors at Indian Point, about 40 miles up the Hudson river, he said. Yet Congress was fast-tracking a form of legal immunity to protect the operators of nuclear reactors from liability in case of a meltdown or terrorist attack. "Why is our nation handing its proclaimed enemies the weapons of our mass destruction, and then shielding from liability the companies that insist on continuing to operate them?" he asked. In another blow to the industry, nuclear specialist Mark Gaffney said that an attack on a plant could make a huge area of the U.S. uninhabitable for centuries. "Entire cities, including New York and even the nation's capital, might have to be permanently vacated," he claimed. "We must face the reality that there is no way to adequately safeguard these plants. When terrorists are willing to die they are very difficult to stop." The only solution, he said, is prevention. "Phase out nuclear power as soon as possible in an orderly transition to wind and solar energy, which are immune to terrorism, in addition to being cost-effective and environmentally friendly." As well as terror attacks, the IAEA meeting is looking at ways of stopping the theft, sale and accidental loss of nuclear materials. On Monday, the international community's investment in nuclear security was described by the U.S. organization Nuclear Threat Initiative as "grossly inadequate". The Initiative--established by the founder of television network CNN, Ted Turner, and former U.S. Senator Sam Nunn--promised US$1.2 million to help the IAEA step up its global efforts to make nuclear material around the world more secure. The IAEA says that since 1993 there have been 175 cases of trafficking in nuclear material and 201 cases of trafficking in other radioactive sources. Eighteen of the cases involved highly enriched uranium or plutonium, the material needed to produce a bomb. Copyright © 2001 Oneworld.net ### |
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