Biased ABC errs badly in clip on N-reactor at U.

Earlier this month ABC-TV aired a one-hour program on assessing security of university nuclear reactors in the United States. There are 25 such reactors sited in various states, including a TRIGA nuclear reactor at the University of Utah in the Merrill Engineering Building (MEB). The overall impact and conclusion of the ABC presentation was that such facilities pose major terrorist risks as potential "dirty bombs" and even atom bombs. Because of the inaccuracies and harm that such a biased national broadcast creates, it is critical to assess the motivation and content of the ABC presentation and describe the actual situation at and purpose of these reactor facilities.

The Carnegie organization funded a visit by selected non-science student teams to attempt to gain improper access to the reactors and test security measures. The Carnegie organization is very critical of the nuclear enterprise. ABC has a long history of anti-nuclear bias, including recent coverage of security at Los Alamos National Laboratory and purported dangers at nuclear facilities. Upon previewing the Carnegie reactor security investigation, ABC elected to air only those university reactors with perceived security deficiencies.

The claim that the student team breached security at the University of Utah reactor was particularly misleading and deceitful. The reactor is sited in the MEB that houses four major departments, each with graduate and undergraduate students. These several thousand students have access to the building 24 hours a day for class work and research studies. The ABC student team entered the outside doors to MEB and approached the entrance door to the reactor laboratory that is accessible to anyone. ABC incorrectly presented this on national television as unsecured, immediate access to the nuclear reactor. In reality, the nuclear reactor fuel core resides over 100 feet from this entrance door and is located 25 feet below ground level in a double-wall reactor tank filled with water. The entrance door is a high-security locked door that allows passage only to authorized persons. Furthermore, final access to the reactor itself requires passage through three more locked doors. The last two doors are alarmed, and forced or unauthorized passage through these doors alerts campus security, and armed officers familiar with the facility immediately respond. Testing of these alarm systems and officer response is performed as required by the NRC on a monthly basis.

It is well-established that all nuclear reactors including university reactors cannot serve as atom bombs or nuclear weapons.

Nevertheless, ABC implied that many of these university reactors possessed sufficient quantities for one or more nuclear weapons.