- The Observer, Sunday September 23 2001
The rupturing of the atom plant's tanks of lethally radioactive waste would cause more carnage than any other single act of terrorism could inflict on this country. Last week both main plants at the Cumbrian site were shut down after volumes of nuclear waste reached unacceptably high levels.
The Sellafield tanks could spray up to two tonnes of deadly caesium-137 into the atmosphere if struck by a hijacked jumbo jet, states the report by Wise-Paris - the World Information Service on Energy. This compares with the 50lb of caesium released during the Chernobyl reactor blast in 1986.
A successful attack on Sellafield could lead to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people and leave large areas of Britain uninhabitable for decades.
The director of Wise-Paris, Mycle Schneider, one of the report's authors, said: 'After what happened on 11 September, we know what terrorists are capable of. It is a question of calculating what the impact will be.'
Sellafield's owners, British Nuclear Fuels, stressed that their buildings were capable of surviving a plane crash, but a source said: 'The plants are designed to withstand collisions with light aircraft or military planes, but not a commercial jet loaded with aviation fuel. The consequences could be unthinkable.'
