Aussie reactor safety net
A new nuclear reactor in a Sydney suburb, which will be commisioned in 2006, is to get a steel safety-net to stop small aircraft being crashed into the reactor.
The net has been criticized by Green Peace, because it is only able to stop a plane the size of Cessna, and not a Jumbo jet. In response, Craig Pearce, from the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO), has said that based on scientific tests it is unlikely a large aircraft could achieve such an angle to hit the reactor.
Sounds a bit like a spin-control attempt to blind the listener with science doesn’t it? If a terrorist wants to release contaminents from a reactor, he’s going to put the plane at any angle he wants, to hit near enough to the reactor to damage it. He doesn’t even need a direct hit on the reactor itself. On the other hand, at least the Aussies are thinking about the possible impact of terrorism on nuclear installations – Europe is crammed full of elderly nuclear reactors built long before the Al Qaida terrorists were born, and there seems to be precious little being done to protect them against attack.