Secure Freedom Minute: Putin’s Attacks Are a Wake-up Call for U.S. Nuclear Resiliency

Vladimir Putin’s forces have attacked Ukraine’s nuclear power plants, including the one synonymous with radioactive disasters: Chernobyl. At particular risk are cooling ponds for spent fuel rods that, if denied electricity to circulate cold water, will see those rods torch-on, spreading radioactivity for many miles downwind and downstream.

Unfortunately, we face a similar danger at scores of nuclear power facilities here at home.

If our electric grid goes down and stays down, containment vessels should preclude radioactive releases from U.S. nuclear reactors. But once co-located emergency generators run out of fuel, the rods in their uncontained cooling ponds will catch fire, creating Fukashimas across America.

For eleven years, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has failed to act on a proposal to provide resilient and cost-effective emergency cooling for these storage sites. Join us in urging them to get that done now at SecuretheGrid.com.   

This is Frank Gaffney.

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