Whipping Up Public Hysteria

Our country is full of opportunists who are utilizing the catastrophic events of September 11th to further their own agendas. Prominent among these individuals is Ralph Nader, the dean of our social critics and activists, who—although they themselves have never served, accomplished anything, or created anything of value to society—are always ready to trash other people. Nader, by whipping up public hysteria, would like to take this opportunity to shut down our 103 operating nuclear power plants and plunge our country into darkness.

The solution to this problem is not to shut down our nuclear electric industry, but to provide proper security to insure that never again will a gang of assassins be able to seize control of an airliner and turn it into a flying bomb. There are simple and cost-effective means to achieve this:

• Hardened cockpit doors

• Duress alarms—small pocket transmitters carried by the cabin crew which they can activate immediately when there is a threat, alerting both the flight deck and ground control

• Closed circuit television, which will keep both the flight deck and ground control informed of possible problems in the passenger cabin

• Non-lethal means for the flight crew to defend themselves against a violent individual—for example, stun guns or chemical sprays

These measures are simple and cost-effective and, in fact, are little more than many retail outlets are already employing to prevent someone from walking off with a $29 blouse. In view of the fact that there were effectively no security measures in place on our airliners on September 11, the head of the FAA and all of their managers with security responsibilities should have submitted their resignations on September 12.

There are additional lines of defense at the reactor itself. The reactor is protected by several layers of containment—feet of steel and yards of reinforced concrete. This problem was addressed and studied by the NRC years ago.

Future power reactors may be sited in deep underground tunnels, which will provide protection against terrorists, additional containment to prevent release of any radioactivity, and reactor core cooling which cannot be interrupted.