Secret document reveals new breed of nuclear reactors vulnerable to terrorist attack

The Electricite de France (EDF) document relates to the projected performance of the AREVA designed Generation III European Pressurized Reactor, the first of which is being built at Olkiluoto in Finland with a second planned for a site at Flammanville, Normandy, France.  EDF has also submitted proposals to the UK government to build ten such reactors, and is seeking to export the design to China and India.

Nuclear engineering consultancy, Large and Associates, in the commissioned study assessed the secret EDF document and concluded that it includes seriously flawed assumptions about whether the reactor could withstand a potential terrorist attack using hijacked commercial aircraft; fallacies include:

* the impact of a 250 tonne commercial jet aircraft is considered to be in the same range as a military aircraft (2-5 tonnes) in terms of the energy of impact, despite the greater induced shock from the much greater physical weight;

* that up to 100 tonnes of aviation fuel from a commercial aircraft would burn within two minutes - which is both unjustified and unproven. It also ignores the possibility of fuel vapour forming within the reactor structures, the explosion of which could severely damage the shield and the reactor within;

* that terrorists would have insufficient skills to pilot an aircraft onto the intended target, despite the deadly accuracy of the 9/11 attacks having proven how well trained and highly skilled they can become.

The EDF document also discounts a serious risk of radioactive release from the reactor, whilst also failing to consider potential radioactivity released from damage to spent fuel rods and waste processing and storage sources on site

"I am not surprised at the controversy generated by this leaked document. This is not because it reveals some highly sensitive details about the EPR design, which it certainly does not, but more because it reflects what seems to be an almost total lack of preparation to defend against the inevitability of terrorist attack," said Dr Large. "A similar attack on a reactor would cause a total calamity with the release of large amounts or radioactivity."

The leaked document was published in full this week by politicians and  environmental organisations in France, in protest at the arrest of an activist from the French Nuclear Phase-out network (Sortir du Nucleaire), who was accused of violation of France's nuclear Secret Defence by having a copy of the EDF document.(2) The activist, Stephane Lhomme, was interrogated over 14 hours on Tuesday after ten anti-terrorist police and others raided his home in Paris, removing documents, computers and phones.

"France's nuclear state, including EDF, does not like public exposure. Their approach is to intimidate and to seek to suppress information. But these issues are too important to be left to a complacent bureaucracy and a self-interested nuclear company with reactors to sell. The EPR is promoted as the future for nuclear power but in reality it is the same dangerous unacceptable technology that has plagued us for decades. Whatever the terrorist threat and targets a wind turbine or solar panel is not on the list," said Shaun Burnie of Greenpeace International.

Dr Large and Stephane Lhomme with a delegation from Greenpeace will be visiting the proposed site for the new EDF EPR reactor at Flammanville on Friday, 19 May.