Board told it’s time to worry more about military attacks on reactors

Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine offers a real-world example of military targeting of nuclear plants, and the issue requires more attention, a National Academies board heard last week in Washington, D.C.

A war-gaming study to explore this threat was done recently by Henry Sokolski, who heads the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center. He discussed the issue May 15 with the Nuclear and Radiation Studies Board.

“This is the first, even quasi-government-event on the, well, how, to think about nuclear plants as military targets,” Sokolski said. “If I have only one message that you can remember, it’s please don’t make this the last.”

The nuclear board is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. It is made up of scientists from government, universities and the corporate world.

“We need more public forums to get into this… We are behind the curve on this,” said Sokolski, who was a non-proliferation adviser in the secretary of defense office during the George H.W. Bush administration. Sokolski also worked as a staffer for the Senate Armed Services Administration.

Others addressing the radiation board were Shaun Burnie, a nuclear specialist with Greenpeace Ukraine, along with Tim Roxey. Roxey is president of Eclectic Technology and a retired cyber security manager at the North American Electric Reliability Corporation.

“Reactors are attractive military targets both in overt and grey wars,” Sokolski said in an online summary of the war game scenarios. “Hitting them can strain alliances and change the direction of wars. I can attest to the private concerns our government and our allies now have about these scenarios. None, however, has yet aired these concerns publicly.”

Some members of the nuclear board questioned Sokolski’s premise that the U.S. government is not sufficiently engaged. They argued various studies have been done by the Departments of Energy and Defense, as well as the Nuclear Regulatory Commission – although most are not public.

But Sokolski said the Pentagon, like any organization, is populated by fallible individuals. The public should not merely accept government assurances that “’we’ve got this,’” Sokolski said.