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On September 21st, 2001, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) admitted that nuclear reactors are not designed to withstand terrorist attacks with large aircraft. Spent nuclear fuel pools are more vulnerable to acts of terror and may well pose the most severe consequences. Unlike nuclear reactors, which are protected by steel vessels and thick concrete containment, spent fuel pools are in far less hardened structures. NRC admitted that the loss of pool water could lead to very serious radiological fires. These fires could result in widespread releases of radiation capable of causing unparalleled economic, environmental and public health consequences and leaving large areas of land uninhabitable. Most importantly, in June of 2002 the NRC staff informed the Commission that its spent fuel safety policy and procedures did not cover vulnerabilities to terrorism like those experienced on September 11th 2002. Learn more about inadequacies in U.S. nuclear safety policy: Download this letter signed by 27 attorneys general A letter signed by 27 attorneys general representing states with the preponderance of the nation's operating nuclear power stations to the U.S. Congress calling for the enactment of the Nuclear Security Act. The letter makes explicit reference to spent nuclear fuel pools as posing the most consequential terrorist risks. Download article on NRC's response to 9-11 Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) response to 9-11 and how initial statements asserted that U.S. reactor containments were designed to withstand the crash of a fully loaded jumbo jet. Within days, both had to recant and admit that the opposite was the case and admit that it "did not specifically contemplate attacks by aircraft such as Boeing 757s and 767s, and nuclear power plants were not designed to withstand such crashes." A similar pattern of assurance followed by retraction characterized the behavior of public relations personnel for a number of specific nuclear sites. Download transcript of NRC's Chairman's speech Full text of the January 17, 2026 speech by Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman, Richard Meserve at the National Press Club on Nuclear Plant Security. Download report on aircraft strikes 1974 study that examines the vulnerability of Boiling Water Reactor (BWR) containments to aircraft strikes. Table 2 of this article reported that the typical BWR containment with its 18-inch thick concrete wall had a 0% chance of preventing penetration by a large aircraft. For 2-foor thick walls, there's a 32% chance of penetration. Download National Research Council report According to a recent National Research Council report, "Nuclear power plants may present a tempting high-visibility target for terrorist attack, and the potential for a September 11-type surprise attack in the near term using U.S. assets such as airplanes appears to be high." National Research Council "Making the Nation Safer - The Role of Science and Technology in Countering Terrorism"[1] at p. 50 (available at http://books.nap.edu/html/stct/index.html). The report and it's "threat matrix" also describe the threat risk as high with potential consequences "ranging from reactor shutdowns to core meltdowns with very large releases of radioactivity." The report also states: "Such attacks could potentially have severe consequences if the attack were large enough and, were such an attack successfully carried out, could do great harm to the nation's near-term energy security and civilian nuclear power as a long-term energy option." The report recommends that "Complete denial of the means to attack [nuclear power plants] from the air or ground using U.S. assets such as aircraft is probably not feasible." Download spent power reactor fuel report Top independent experts present a detailed proposal to reduce the hazards from spent power reactor fuel: Read a paper written by top physicists, engineers and policy experts from leading universities (Princeton/MIT) and non-governmental organizations that addresses the vulnerabilities and consequences of terrorist attacks against commercial nuclear power spent fuel pools. The paper is an in-depth analysis of the:
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