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From: henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer)
Newsgroups: net.followup,net.politics
Subject: Re: Re: Lockport Blast: safety of oil vs nuclear power
Message-ID: <4175@utzoo.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 3-Aug-84 14:47:23 EDT
Article-I.D.: utzoo.4175
Posted: Fri Aug  3 14:47:23 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 3-Aug-84 14:47:23 EDT
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Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
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> Nuclear power plants are sitting ducks, and taking one out - done 'properly'
> can make entire regions unihabitable.  For example, a Scientific American
> article some time ago pointed out that a single atomic bomb dropped on the
> right nuclear power plant during normal wind conditions could contaminate
> the ENTIRE RUHR INDUSTRIAL REGION for decades.

Later commentary on that article pointed out that a nuclear power plant
isn't exactly a "sitting duck":  Western nuclear plants (as opposed to
the Soviet ones) are probably the toughest structures ever built by man.
They are built to shrug off direct hits by crashing airliners, after all.
Hitting one of them with a missile would need silo-killing accuracy, and
missiles with silo-killing accuracy will have more important targets in
a war.  Bombers are a different matter, but we have defences against them
(or we're supposed to...).

Splattering a nuclear plant would also be a rather stupid thing to do.
Making a large and immensely valuable industrial area uninhabitable for
years is the sort of mistake that generals get shot for.  Tactical nuclear
weapons are generally designed for *minimum* fallout for just this reason.
(Strategic weapons don't figure in this because use of them will mean a
situation sufficiently bad that the reactors will be only a minor worry.)
I would consider it very surprising to find the Soviets planning to blast
reactors (with nuclear or non-nuclear weapons) in anything short of dire
extremity.  Much more likely would be a non-nuclear strike against the
generators or the switching gear, with intact survival of the containment
shell an explicit *objective* of the mission.

> ....................................................  What's more, if you
> get the coolant input pipes you can cause a melt down without too much
> trouble.  Presto chango, no one can live nearby for years, if not centuries.

The most likely result of a meltdown, actually, is a hell of a mess within
the reactor building, and perhaps immediately underneath it, but not much
of a problem outside.  Why do you think those nice thick containment walls
are there?

> Actually, all centralized power plants have defense problems because of
> the major disruptions caused when they are destroyed.

No argument.  But this applies to many things in an industrial civilization,
not just power plants.

> Nuclear plants 
> compound the problem since the radioactive fuel can be used as a weapon.

Only if you've got a nuclear weapon, or something close, to liberate it
with.  There are other things that would also make an awful mess which
are *not* so well protected.  A few years ago, just west of where I sit
typing this, an entire city was evacuated for several days when some
chlorine tank cars were involved in a derailment accident.  And there is
alleged to be at least one hydroelectric dam in California where a major
dam failure might kill a quarter of a million people.  You don't need to
invoke nuclear methods to achieve mass murder.
-- 
				Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
				{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry