Nuclear Power Plants and Their Fuel as Terrorist Targets

If you watch television or read repeated public statements of concern about nuclear power plants as terrorist targets, you would be justified in believing that spent nuclear fuel casks being shipped to Nevada for storage are each a nuclear catastrophe just waiting to be triggered. These casks have been called “mobile Chernobyls,” and we are told they are capable of causing “tens of thousands of deaths” (1). What are the facts about the safety of nuclear shipments and power plants?