Hats off to Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley for demanding that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission consider the potential of hot waste stored at nuclear power plants to become a bomb in the hands of terrorists. Two years ago, Coakley petitioned the NRC to take the perils of stored waste into account in deciding whether to extend the operating licenses of the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant in Vernon, Vt. and the Pilgrim plant in Plymouth, Mass. The entire Massachusetts Congressional delegation wrote the NRC in support of her request.
Following her example, the states of California and New York, where the Indian Point plant (owned by Entergy, which also owns Vermont Yankee and Pilgrim) has long been considered an attractive terrorist target because of its location only 35 miles from midtown Manhattan, filed similar petitions with the NRC. New York's governor and attorney general have mounted a full court press, including suing the NRC, to stop the planned relicensing of the Indian Point plant.
In particular, Coakley asked the NRC to consider the danger that loss of coolant water could cause the rods in a spent fuel pool to ignite. Early in August the NRC denied her request, arguing that either backup water or cooling air could keep the temperatures in the pools low enough to prevent ignition. The request from California was also denied.
Coakley last year also initiated an action in federal court to force the NRC to do the same thing—to take the issue of terrorist acts that might cause spent fuel pool disasters into account in relicensing proceedings. Activists are now urging her to return to court, not only to force the NRC to change its rules, but to gain public exposure for the issue. Last week a coalition of nuclear watchdog organizations led by the Plymouth area's Pilgrim Watch, and including the Valley's Citizens Awareness Network, wrote in a letter to Coakley, "&we look forward to a full airing of the environmental and public health risks posed by high-density pool storage of spent fuel at the Pilgrim and Vermont Yankee nuclear plants."
