State's nuclear plants re-examine security

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Nuclear power plants in Missouri and across the country are re-examining security after terrorists used fuel-laden commercial airplanes as weapons.

Security in the past has focused on preventing commando raids, internal sabotage or possibly a truck bomb. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has never tested whether plants, such as the University of Missouri-Columbia Research Reactor and the Callaway Nuclear Plant, could withstand the impact of a commercial aircraft.

Officials at the nuclear agency said three protective physical barriers would have to fail before nuclear radiation could escape into the atmosphere. The nuclear fuel pellets are kept within a series of rods, the rods are stored within the nuclear reactor, and a 2- to 5-foot-thick reinforced concrete containment building protects the reactor.

"There are a lot of things that could happen, that you wouldn't want to happen, but we think the general public could be protected from the kind of catastrophe that happened in the Chernobyl incident," said NRC spokesman Breck Henderson.

referring to the 1986 nuclear power disaster near Kiev, Ukraine.

The University of Missouri facility does not contain enough fuel to be considered a significant terrorist threat, Henderson said. And officials said other types of attacks may pose more serious risks to nuclear power plants.

"It would be difficult, not impossible, but difficult to hit," said Susan Gallagher, a spokeswoman at the Callaway plant, which AmerenUE operates. "It would be a difficult vantage point to come into. It's not like the World Trade Center."

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has conducted mock terrorist drills since 1991. In 1997, the Callaway plant failed two parts of the drill but retook the entire test again later the same year and passed. Callaway also passed the test in the early 1990s and again in 1998.

The regulatory commission is investigating whether other safety problems could occur outside the actual reactor. Spent fuel at the Callaway plant and many others across the country is stored in a pool of water outside the reactor's protective containment area.