This gem off of the internet is now only a bit old

Way back in 2002, a bunch of old men declared that nuke plants would be a difficult target for terrorists to find for a 9/11/2001 kind of attack. I have not seen the article that is cited here. However, I do recall that at least one magazine compared the (low) profile of a nuke plant with the twin towers in lower Manhattan. They did not mention that on a clear day the cooling tower plumes of several units are visible to airliners from many miles away (maybe more than 50). Of course, several nuke plants do not use cooling towers. However, they could likely be spotted very easily by dedicated terrorists.




Science 20 September 2002:

Vol. 297. no. 5589,

pp. 1997 - 1999

DOI: 10.1126/science.1077855


Policy Forum


NUCLEAR SAFETY:Nuclear Power Plants and Their Fuel as Terrorist Targets



Douglas M. Chapin, Karl P. Cohen, W. Kenneth Davis, Edwin E. Kintner, Leonard J. Koch, John W. Landis, Milton Levenson, I. Harry Mandil, Zack T. Pate, Theodore Rockwell, Alan Schriesheim, John W. Simpson, Alexander Squire, Chauncey Starr, Henry E. Stone, John J. Taylor, Neil E. Todreas, Bertram Wolfe, Edwin L. Zebroski

In the wake of the 11 September attack on the World Trade Center, a large number of outrageous public statements appeared, claiming that any attack on a nuclear plant or its fuel would be catastrophic. Because no effective rebuttal appeared from responsible agencies and organizations, a number of members of the National Academy of Engineering worked to hammer out a statement that all the signatories would be willing to publicly stand behind. This Statement, based on engineering principles and long, practical experience in nuclear technology, is presented as a Policy Forum.