Security increased as nuclear terror attack fears grow

Security is being stepped up at nuclear power plants in the US amid fears of attacks on the country or its interests abroad.

The move comes as the International Atomic Energy Agency warns a nuclear attack by terrorists is more likely now than it was before the September 11 attacks.

Experts from around the world are meeting at the IAEA in Vienna to discuss nuclear terrorism and call for a review of nuclear safety at facilities worldwide.

They say radiation knows no frontiers, and nations have to recognise the safety and security of nuclear material is a global concern.

The Federal Aviation Administration in the US has temporarily banned small private airplanes from flying near the 103 nuclear power plants around the US.

Ed Lyman, scientific director for the Nuclear Control Institute, said nuclear power plants in the US would be vulnerable to the kind of attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon.

"They were not designed with this kind of attack in mind, and it is foolish to make statements, like some in the industry have, that plants could withstand that," Mr Lyman said.

"The kind of missile generated by the engine of a large aircraft could penetrate several feet of steel-reinforced concrete."

But Steve Kerekes, spokesman for the Nuclear Energy Institute which represents the nuclear power industry, said four feet of steel-reinforced concrete is only one of the external barriers protecting nuclear reactors.

The steel-reinforced concrete is then lined with an inch of steel, and the reactor vessel is made of six inches of steel, he said. The fuel is encased in zirconium alloy rods. US nuclear power plants are designed to withstand earthquakes, hurricanes and flying debris from hurricanes, he said.