From: hal@finney.org
Date: Sat Sep 29 2001 - 18:59:23 MDT
--- Hubert Mania <mania@welfen-netz.com> wrote:
>Imagine a Boeing 747, heading from Frankfurt
> to the USA is going
> to be hijacked and with the full load of fuel is
> flown at full speed into
> Biblis containment. I bet the concrete shield will
> not withstand that
> impact.
The United States Nuclear Regulatory Commision says, at
http://www.nrc.gov/OPA/gmo/nrarcv/01-112.html:
: Q: What would happen if a large commercial airliner was intentionally
: crashed into a nuclear power plant?
:
: A:. Nuclear power plants have inherent capability to protect public
: health and safety through such features as robust containment buildings,
: redundant safety systems, and highly trained operators. They are among the
: most hardened structures in the country and are designed to withstand
: extreme events, such as hurricanes, tornadoes and earthquakes. In
: addition, all NRC licenses with significant radiological material have
: emergency response plans to enable the mitigation of impacts on the
: public in the event of a release. However, the NRC did not specifically
: contemplate attacks by aircraft such as Boeing 757s or 767s and nuclear
: power plants were not designed to withstand such crashes. Detailed
: engineering analyses of a large airliner crash have not yet been
: performed.
It sounds like it could well be a problem. I think I read something about
putting anti-aircraft missiles at nuclear sites. Unfortunately they
won't get much warning since it may not be obvious that a plane is off
course until it's very close.
Hal
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Sat Nov 02 2002 - 08:11:03 MST