WASHINGTON - US nuclear power plants have "hardened" their defenses against potential terrorist attacks and do not face a significant risk from suicide aircraft attacks, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission's chairman said Monday.
NRC chairman Nils Diaz said the nation's nuclear industry is safer than ever nearly four years after the September 11, 2001, hijacked airplane strikes on New York and Washington.
"Both nuclear security and safety are better than they have ever been and both are getting better," Diaz said at a news conference here.
"What we have done in the last three and a half years is to make it very difficult for anyone to find ways to attempt acts of radiological sabotage, even more difficult to succeed in doing real harm, and to be very prepared to protect our people in the very unlikely event of radiological release," he said.
Protective barriers have been moved further away from nuclear reactors, the number of guards has increased and towers have been installed to shoot potential intruders, Diaz added.
"We have hardened both the security and the safety of the power plants," he said.
According to a power plant security report released by the NRC, engineering studies were conducted on the threat of a commercial airplane attack on nuclear facilities.
"For the facilities analyzed, the vulnerability studies confirm that the likelihood of both damaging the reactor core and releasing radioactivity that could affect public health and safety is low," the report said.
"We found that general aviation, in general, is not a significant threat to a nuclear power plant," Diaz said.
03/14/2005 17:21 GMT