Nuclear power plants have long been a potential target for terrorist attacks. Since 9/11, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has been conducting ongoing “top-to-bottom” reviews of security measures at all nuclear facilities across America. A 2005 Congressional Research Service (CRS) report for Congress sums up why:

“Nuclear power plants were designed to withstand hurricanes, earthquakes, and other extreme events, but attacks by large airliners loaded with fuel, such as those that crashed into the World Trade Center and Pentagon, were not contemplated when design requirements were determined. A taped interview shown September 10, 2002, on Arab TV station al-Jazeera, which contains a statement that Al Qaeda initially planned to include a nuclear plant in its 2001 attack sites, intensified concern about aircraft crashes.”

Yesterday, January 29, 2007, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission released a revised security report stating that trying to make nuclear power plants “crash-proof” is not a viable option and that prevention by the military is the only option to avert this kind of an attack (translation: any hijacked plane headed for a nuclear power plant will be shot down). There is nothing new about this idea, and there is also nothing comforting about it.

The report is mostly classified; you can read a one page summary here. The Associated Press has more here.

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