ON THE IMPORTANCE OF THE SECURITY AND SAFETY OF THE REACTOR PRESSURE VESSEL TO EXTERNAL THREATS

Nuclear power plants have long been recognized as potential targets of terrorist attacks, and critics have long questioned the adequacy of the existing measures to defend against such attacks. The 11-S 2001, 11-M 2004 and 7-J 2005 attacks in USA, Spain and UK illustrated the deadly intentions and abilities of modern terrorist groups. These attacks also brought to surface long standing concerns about the vulnerability of nuclear installations to possible terrorist attacks. Commercial nuclear reactors contain large inventory of radioactive fission products which, if dispersed, could pose a direct radiation hazard on the population. The reactor pressure vessel (RPV), which contains the nuclear fuel, is the most critical component of the plant. This paper shows that small amount of explosive material can produce irreversible damage in the RPV and the release of radioactive material. Therefore, access of working personal to the vicinity of the RPV during the refuelling outage should be strictly limited. It should be considered a high priority security issue.