"Terror Risks to Nuclear Plants Is Debated" (Sept. 16) is right on target, except that the risk hardly seems to be debatable. We should ignore the propaganda of the Nuclear Energy Institute, the lobbying arm for the industry, and I would question whether, under the pro-nuclear Bush administration, we can trust what the Nuclear Regulatory Commission says.
Then, as the story reports, we clearly see two facts. 1. "The Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security have continued to warn that Al Qaeda remains interested in targeting nuclear plants." 2. "If an airplane were to hit a nuclear power plant and emergency systems and evacuation plans proved inadequate, worst-case scenarios indicate that a reactor core meltdown or spent-fuel fire could result in hundreds of thousands of people killed or stricken with cancer or genetic damage. An area the size of Pennsylvania could be transformed into a no man's land for centuries."
