Terrorist attacks (was Re: More myth busting )
John G. De Armond
>The remaining trouble with terrorist threats is what one guy I talked
>to said. He said all they have to do is set up an artillery piece on
>a nearby hill overlooking the power plant and start taking potshots.
>I don't see much of a way around that. Just hopefully the military
>would have time to attack and destroy the terrorists before they
>nailed the reactor core.
Even this kind of attack is taken into consideration in the design of
a containment vessel. The "standard missile" in most FSARs is a
60 ft telephone pole propelled by tornado winds to >100 mph. This
delivers more ft-lbs on impact than even a cannon round. The containment
is designed to withstand this missile with no damage and no breach of
containment. It is also designed to withstand a direct airplane crash,
usually assumed to be a private plane.
An AP round would likely penetrate the outer containment wall and probably
even the inner steel containment vessel. Loss of containment integrety
would result and probably some equipment would be damaged. However,
for reasons mostly other than missile resistance, all equipment (reactor,
pressurizer & steam gens (PWR), recirc pumps (BWR), etc) is encased in
several feet of steel-reenforced concrete. And in the case of the
reactor vessel, it is below grade and is covered with a missile/radiation
shield that is typically from 15 to 20 feet thick concrete.
As a point of interest, French terrorists fired (I believe it was) a
SAM-7 at the Super Phoenix breeder containment in France. Nuclear
News published a closeup photo of the impact area. It looked like someone
had dinged the concrete with a big hammer. penetration was no more than
2 or 3 inches. The concrete used in most containments is a special mix and
usually contains fly ash from coal burners. This stuff is resilliant
and tends to deform rather than crack. I've watched workmen bury the bit
of a jackhammer up in the stuff trying to demolish a structure and do
nothing more than make a hole.
Probably better targets for terrorist attacks would be the substation,
the emergency diesel generators or the cooling water intake structures.
These are much more vunerable and could conceivably case some minor
degree of core degradation. This would likely manifest itself as
excessive leaky fuel cladding that results from overheating.
John
--
John De Armond, WD4OQC | We can no more blame our loss of freedom on congress
Radiation Systems, Inc. | than we can prostitution on pimps. Both simply
Atlanta, Ga | provide broker services for their customers.
{emory,uunet}!rsiatl!jgd| - Dr. W Williams | **I am the NRA**
Kenneth Ng
: Even this kind of attack is taken into consideration in the design of
: a containment vessel. The "standard missile" in most FSARs is a
: 60 ft telephone pole propelled by tornado winds to >100 mph. This
: delivers more ft-lbs on impact than even a cannon round. The containment
: is designed to withstand this missile with no damage and no breach of
: containment. It is also designed to withstand a direct airplane crash,
: usually assumed to be a private plane.
Got a number for this ft-lbs impact? I'd like to look up in my Janes
weapons book the equivalent weapons. I remember seeing an ancient film
clip of a couple experiments where a telephone pole just discentegrated
on impact with a test wall, and a rocket accelerated steel pipe put a
two inch dent in the wall.
: As a point of interest, French terrorists fired (I believe it was) a
: SAM-7 at the Super Phoenix breeder containment in France. Nuclear
: News published a closeup photo of the impact area. It looked like someone
: had dinged the concrete with a big hammer. penetration was no more than
: 2 or 3 inches.
Got a date on this one? A year will suffice.
--
Kenneth Ng: Post office: NJIT - CCCC, Newark New Jersey 07102
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