Terrorism risk in nuclear fuel storage

An article in the San Francisco Chronicle reports on yet another nuclear power safety risk.

"A classified report by nuclear experts assembled by the National Academy of Sciences has challenged the decision by federal regulators to allow commercial nuclear facilities to store large quantities of radioactive spent fuel in pools of water. The report concluded that the government does not fully understand the risks that a terrorist attack could pose to the pools and ought to expedite the removal of the fuel to dry storage casks that are more resilient to attack. The Bush administration has defended the safety of the pools, and the nuclear industry has warned that moving fuel to dry storage would be unnecessary and expensive. The report was requested by Congress after the terrorist attacks of Sept 11, 2001. Because it is classified, the contents of the report were not made public when it was delivered to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission last summer. Even a stripped-down, declassified version has remained under wraps because the NRC says it contains sensitive information."