PLUTONIUM SAFEGUARDS

Plutonium shipments must now be accompanied by armed guards and an armed escort vehicle in constant radio contact with outside monitors. Vehicles that can be made impenetrable and immovable while automatically transmitting a radio alarm are being developed. Other measures are being kept secret, at least until Jack Anderson or Daniel Schorr get their hands on them to turn an honest buck.

Garrison state? Tons and tons not only of plutonium, but of operational nuclear weapons (an incomparably more lucrative target for terrorists) have been shipped safely across thousands of miles for decades; where is the garrison state? The very phrase "plutonium economy" is a Naderite buzz word. There will never be as many plutonium shipments as shipments of flea collars; do we live in a "flea collar economy?"

But while the risks of terrorism and sabotage are more serious in the non-nuclear energy sector, there is one substantial difference in the comparison of risks. Electric power can be generated from fossils or by nuclear energy or a certain mix of both. Per unit energy produced, there is a choice of risking lives in transporting coal or transporting uranium ore (for example), and these risks can be meaningfully compared, for they are alternatives.

Not so with sabotage and terrorism. The terrorist has a wide choice open to him no matter what type of power generation is used, in fact, his choice would not be significantly restricted if there were no electric power generation at all.

And there is another point that makes terrorism irrelevant to the issue of nuclear power. The capacity to make nuclear weapons is proliferating around the world. Illicit weapons are not likely to be made in basements or garages, but in government-run labs of the Third World, if not outright supplied by the Communist World. There are, in fact, methods of breeding plutonium from unenriched uranium ore without the bother of producing electric power in the process. (International treaties? Ha, ha.)

The threat is real, and will become more acute. Is there any possible difference that the presence or absence of US nuclear power plants can make to it?

Yes, there is. They will help to make America energy-independent and stronger to deal with such threats. And that is the only connection.