Belgian Media Explains What To Do During A Nuclear Disaster
By Tyler Durden
Electrabel is disgusted with the media. Why? Because in the aftermath of the Brussels attacks, the electric utility thinks journalists have made too much of the alleged threat to the country’s nuclear infrastructure.
Hours after four attackers detonated explosives-laden belts and luggage in the Brussels airport and metro, reports began to surface that the Tihange and Doel nuclear power plants were being evacuated.
That would have been alarming enough on its own, but last month it emerged that when Belgian authorities raided a home in Auvelais last November in connection with the Paris attacks, investigators recovered hours of surveillance footage apparently recorded by terrorists at the home of a top nuclear official. There’s now some speculation that the Bakraoui brothers (two of the four Brussels bombers) were involved in covertly monitoring the official’s home.
Obviously, that suggests that the cell was (and probably still is) interested in either sabotaging a nuclear facility and/or obtaining radioactive material for the purposes of developing a dirty bomb. That’s not an attempt to sow panic, it’s simply the conclusion one comes to when told that terrorists were in possession of video tapes depicting the day-to-day routine of nuclear officials and their families.
Electrabel would later say the Tihange had actually not been “evacuated” per se. Rather, non essential personnel were told they could go home.
#Tihange nuclear powerplant – people who are not strictly necessary on site can leave #security measures
— Electrabel (@Electrabel) March 22, 2016
On Saturday, the utility became even more exasperated when Derniere Heure reported that a Tihange security guard had been shot in Charleroi and his access badge stolen. That report, Electrabel insists, is “false.”
Electrabel roept op de grootste voorzichtigheid met betrekking tot artikels die zaterdagochtend verschenen zijn https://t.co/2ux75SPlse
— Electrabel (@Electrabel) March 26, 2016
Translation: “Electrabel calls the greatest caution with regard to articles that have appeared Saturday morning.”
“Electrabel deplores that its sites are being used regularly this week to illustrate articles without any link to the company or its 5,000 workers,” a statement reads. Hopefully the company doesn’t expect this “deplorable” state of affairs to improve any time soon because if you know anything about the history of Tihange and Doel (see here and here for more), you know why Belgians are worried.
“It’s like talcum powder,” Matthew Bunn, a specialist in nuclear security at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, told The New York Times, regarding byproducts of isotopes like Cesium-137. “If you made a dirty bomb out of it, it’s going to provoke fear, you would have to evacuate and you have to spend a lot of money cleaning it up; the economic destruction cost could be very high.”
Yes, “it’s going to provoke fear,” much like running a story about how to survive a nuclear terrorist attack when the public is already at wit’s end. But better safe than sorry we suppose …read more
Source: Belgian Media Explains What To Do During A Nuclear Disaster
