- PARIS -- A leaked document on the vulnerability to terrorist attack
of the new European Pressurised Reactor (EPR) - being considered or already
under construction in several countries including UK, France and Finland
- reveals a dangerously flawed approach to security, according to a study
commissioned by Greenpeace International. (1)
-
- The Electricite de France (EDF) document
relates to the projected performance of the AREVA designed Generation III
European Pressurized Reactor, the first of which is being built at Olkiluoto
in Finland with a second planned for a site at Flammanville, Normandy,
France. EDF has also submitted proposals to the UK government to build
ten such reactors, and is seeking to export the design to China and India.
-
- Nuclear engineering consultancy, Large
and Associates, in the commissioned study assessed the secret EDF document
and concluded that it includes seriously flawed assumptions about whether
the reactor could withstand a potential terrorist attack using hijacked
commercial aircraft; fallacies include:
-
- * the impact of a 250 tonne commercial
jet aircraft is considered to be in the same range as a military aircraft
(2-5 tonnes) in terms of the energy of impact, despite the greater induced
shock from the much greater physical weight;
-
- * that up to 100 tonnes of aviation fuel
from a commercial aircraft would burn within two minutes - which is both
unjustified and unproven. It also ignores the possibility of fuel vapour
forming within the reactor structures, the explosion of which could severely
damage the shield and the reactor within;
-
- * that terrorists would have insufficient
skills to pilot an aircraft onto the intended target, despite the deadly
accuracy of the 9/11 attacks having proven how well trained and highly
skilled they can become.
-
- The EDF document also discounts a serious
risk of radioactive release from the reactor, whilst also failing to consider
potential radioactivity released from damage to spent fuel rods and waste
processing and storage sources on site
-
- "I am not surprised at the controversy
generated by this leaked document. This is not because it reveals some
highly sensitive details about the EPR design, which it certainly does
not, but more because it reflects what seems to be an almost total lack
of preparation to defend against the inevitability of terrorist attack,"
said Dr Large. "A similar attack on a reactor would cause a total
calamity with the release of large amounts or radioactivity."
-
- The leaked document was published in
full this week by politicians and environmental organisations in France,
in protest at the arrest of an activist from the French Nuclear Phase-out
network (Sortir du Nucleaire), who was accused of violation of France's
nuclear Secret Defence by having a copy of the EDF document.(2) The activist,
Stephane Lhomme, was interrogated over 14 hours on Tuesday after ten anti-terrorist
police and others raided his home in Paris, removing documents, computers
and phones.
-
- "France's nuclear state, including
EDF, does not like public exposure. Their approach is to intimidate and
to seek to suppress information. But these issues are too important to
be left to a complacent bureaucracy and a self-interested nuclear company
with reactors to sell. The EPR is promoted as the future for nuclear power
but in reality it is the same dangerous unacceptable technology that has
plagued us for decades. Whatever the terrorist threat and targets a wind
turbine or solar panel is not on the list," said Shaun Burnie of Greenpeace
International.
-
- Dr Large and Stephane Lhomme with a delegation
from Greenpeace will be visiting the proposed site for the new EDF EPR
reactor at Flammanville on Friday, 19 May.
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