NAS Releases Suppressed Study on Nuclear Waste Pools

The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) today released a declassified study that found pools storing radioactive waste at the nation's nuclear power plants – including Progress Energy's Shearon Harris facility near Raleigh – are vulnerable to terrorist attack.

Prompt measures are necessary to reduce the risk, and they should be designed and implemented on a facility-by-facility basis, according to a committee of the NAS Board on Radioactive Waste Management.

The committee based its conclusions on a detailed review of security analyses performed by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), the Department of Homeland Security, the nuclear power industry and independent experts.

"Within the six-month time frame requested by Congress, our committee of technical experts completed a very sound, evidence-based analysis," said committee chair Louis Lanzerotti, distinguished research professor at the New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark and a consultant with Lucent Technologies in Murray Hill, N.J. "We received input both from scientific professionals and the public. Our findings were unanimous."

An attack that partially or completely drains a plant's spent fuel pool could start a high-temperature fire, releasing large quantities of radioactive material into the environment, the committee found. The NAS recommended that two measures be taken promptly to reduce the potential for such fires: reconfiguring the position of fuel assemblies in the pools to more evenly distribute decay-heat loads, and making provisions for cooling water-spray systems that could continue to operate even after the pool or the building in which it is housed is damaged.

Congress commissioned the NAS study over a year ago, but the NRC – which disagreed with the findings – blocked its public release since last summer.

"The release of NAS's study puts to rest any doubts about the danger we all face," said a statement from the Nuclear Security Coalition, a safety advocacy group that includes the N.C. Waste Awareness and Reduction Network. "We applaud the Academy for its scientific integrity and its perseverance in seeing to it that these important findings are made public."

The coalition called on Congress to pass legislation to get nuclear waste out of crowded pools.

For a copy of the report, which can be read for free on the NAS Web site, click here.