Terrorist act ripples change through nuclear industry

摘要

The continued possibility of terrorism on the horizon has shaken the nuclear industry and its biggest regulator, but neither is giving in to doubt and rumors about the true safety and security of American nuclear power production. However, both the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) admit that the events of Sept. 11 have fostered a number of new security actions by each. "The events of Sept. 11 have required us to reexamine what we had been doing in the past," commented Richard Meserve, chairman of the NRC in an interview with EL&P. "I think that it served as a wake-up call across the government, and I don't think it's likely we will ever go back to the pre-Sept. 11 levels of concern about terrorist activities in the U.S.― not just with nuclear energy, but with infrastructure of all kinds, he added.