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Nuclear power – a terrorist target?

The Oxford Research Group has told the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee that nuclear power should not be part of the UK's energy supply, because it presents a major threat to national and international security.

Professor Frank Barnaby says nuclear power increases the risk of nuclear terrorism, and creates opportunities for states and terrorist organisations to acquire or build nuclear weapons. Nuclear terrorism has the potential to cause large, or quite large, numbers of deaths. And the risk will increase if more nuclear power stations are built. Of particular
concern is the danger that terrorists will illegally acquire plutonium and use it to fabricate a primitive nuclear weapon or a dirty bomb.

Oxford Research Group report

Several events recently have pointed to the possibility that there will be an attack on a nuclear facility somewhere in the world sooner or later. Detailed plans of Britain's most sensitive nuclear sites were found in a car linked to one of the London terror fanatics according to the Sunday Mirror. Photographs, slides, maps and detailed information about types of radioactive materials and where they are stored on sites such as Sellafield, Dounreay, and Sizewell were found in a raid during the July bombing campaign. They identified sensitive aspects of the sites and gave locations of fuel stores, emergency generators and buildings with unsafe levels of radiation inside. The Metropolitan Police have told one of Britain's top nuclear experts that the sensitive material bearing his name had been found in the car of a woman connected to the July atrocities. The material appeared to come from lectures and talks he had given to students at a university in 2002. Sellafield bosses are said to be investigating the claims made in the Sunday Mirror.

Sunday Mirror 16th October 2005

The Lucas Heights nuclear reactor in Sydney may have been a target of suspected terrorists. Three of eight Sydney men currently facing terrorism charges were stopped by police near the nuclear facility in December 2004. When interviewed separately by police all three gave different versions of the day's events. Police inquiries revealed the access lock for a gate to a reservoir at the reactor had recently been cut. Lucas Heights, Australia's only nuclear reactor, is about 25 miles south west of central Sydney. It is used for research and medical purposes, and does not generate electricity.

BBC 14th November 2005

Rather than attacking a nuclear facility, terrorists could decide to use nuclear material in a crude bomb. An Al-Qaeda website containing detailed instructions on how to make a “dirty” bomb has attracted more than 57,000 hits and hundreds inquiries. Under the heading "The Nuclear Bomb of Jihad" there are 80 pages of instructions and pictures of kitchen bomb-making techniques. Nuclear physicists were alarmed by the site. “Normally you just get generic principles, but this appears to be more like a proper instruction manual,” said John Hassard, reader in physics at Imperial College, London. He said that while it was highly unlikely that amateur bomb-builders could get hold of fissile material, smuggling networks with access to nuclear materials from the break-up of the Soviet Union could use the information. Experts on Al-Qaeda said the organisation appeared to be encouraging its followers to produce both “dirty” bombs and smaller devices similar to those used in the London Tube attacks.

Sunday Times 6th November 2005

Somewhat more dramatically, a foiled Chechen rebel assault on the Russian city of Nalchik in October was reported to have involved an attempt to hijack five planes that could be flown into various targets, including a nuclear power station.

Independent 29th October 2005

All the more reason to be more security conscious, perhaps. Yet a cargo of radioactive nuclear waste from Hinkley Point nuclear power station sat unprotected in a railway siding near Bridgwater in Somerset for hours, near houses and less than 100 metres from a school. Bosses at nuclear train operators Direct Rail said they would tighten security after The Sunday Mirror told them about the lapse. Nuclear engineer, Dr John Large, says "Every one of these trains would be a potential target for terrorists. The flasks of fuel rods could be easily penetrated by a rocket-propelled grenade. If a flask was penetrated it would cause radiation over a wide area. The contents are intensely radioactive. Exposure for just 30 seconds would mean death."

Sunday Mirror 30th October 2005

But increased security will also have an impact on civil liberties. Armed police now patrol civil nuclear sites, including those runs by the privatised nuclear operator British Energy. The Civil Nuclear constabulary has said it is unwilling to say whether it has a “shoot to kill” policy. Visitors to the beach near Sizewell have been made uneasy by armed officers patrolling outside of the perimeter fence. Local Town Councillor, Colin Ginger said “as long as Sizewell A and Sizewell B are there, they’ll be focal points” and potential terrorist targets.

East Anglian Daily Times 14th ,17th & 18th October 2005

If the worst did happen then the results of emergency planning exercises by the Ministry of Defence, and various civilian agencies, give little cause for comfort. According to confidential reports obtained by New Scientist, and the Sunday Herald, UK authorities are not fully prepared to protect people from being exposed to radioactivity.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) regularly runs exercises to evaluate how the armed forces, emergency services and local authorities would respond to an accident involving trucks carrying nuclear bombs. In response to a request from New Scientist under the Freedom of Information the MoD has released post-mortems of four exercises conducted during the past decade. These documents, says the journal, reveal that delays in issuing public warnings, poor monitoring of radiation and breakdown in communication could all have increased people’s exposure to radiation if a real accident had occurred involving burning or exploding trucks carrying nuclear weapons, leading to the possible scattering of plutonium downwind.

New Scientist magazine, 12 November 2005

Regular assessments of the problems thrown up by civilian nuclear exercises are conducted by the government’s Nuclear Emergency Planning Liaison Group (NEPLG). Its latest report highlights 48 “areas for improvement”, prompted by more than 20 exercises at nuclear sites over the last five years. The exercises involve the emergency services, nuclear operators, local authorities and regulatory agencies. Critics say the NEPLG report details an astonishing catalogue of fundamental and recurring failures - agencies still can’t get even the basics right after years of practising. Failures include inadequate radiation monitoring, communication breakdowns, poor planning and a chronic shortage of basic facilities.

Sunday Herald 21st August 2005