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With Friends Like This...

By Eric McErlain
One-time media mogul Ted Turner gave a backhanded compliment to nuclear energy last night:
The broadcast mogul Ted Turner told a group of wealthy philanthropists yesterday that the country needs to turn to nuclear power as part of a new energy plan, but that terrorists could blow up a nuclear power plant.

The multibillionaire megaphilanthropist called power plants "gigantic land mines" but said, "At the end of the day, I think it's a risk we have to accept."
As we've said he before at NEI, we beg to differ, and believe nuclear power plants are the best defended pieces of industrial infrastructure in the U.S.

Senator Schumer seems to agree with us.

For more from our Web site, click here. For a post we did on provisions for air attack on nuclear facilities, click here.

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Comments

Anonymous said…
Greetings,

"gigantic land mines"... indeed, and unnecessary, too.

If Ted Turner's really serious about this he would be interested to see NUREG-2859 "Evaluation of Aircraft Hazards for Nuclear Power Stations" (Argonne National Lab, 1982) as it shows the actual lack of consideration and analyses on aircraft impacts for current reactor designs, an area of common concern that we share with Turner that NEI & NRC continue to ignore in a revised Design Basis Threat even for the new designs like AREVA’s.

Turner's remark begs the question of what are the real costs of security for the defense of nuclear power plants (a “nuclear” arms in-and-of-itself)? In fact, it is clearly a cost that NEI and NRC don’t want clarified because they're unwilling to afford in an increasingly competitive electricity market. He can see the proof in the GAO's March 2006 Report to the Chairman of the Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations, “Nuclear Power Plants: Efforts Made to Upgrade Security, but the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Design Basis Threat Process Should be Improved.”

Gunter, NIRS
November 15, 2006 at 12:32 PM
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