INCIDENTI PER TERRORISMO NUCLEARE al 28/09/03

3 Jan 1961: United States--criticality accident at SL-1 test reactor kills 3; according to reports, the excursion was a murder-suicide by the worker who extracted a control rod.

1966-1977: Europe--10 terrorist incidents against European nuclear installations.2

before 1974: Austria--Radioisotope indium-113 applied to a railroad car.3

1974-1986: United States--32 acts of intentional damage or suspected sabotage at domestic nuclear facilities.4

1974-1985: Total of nearly 100 instances that involved response by NEST.5

1974-1980: United States--total of about 80 instances of nuclear threats deemed credible; only two prompted NEST deployment.6

15 Aug 1975: France--Two bombs exploded at Mt. d'Arree NPS in Brittany: one at far end of canal between plant and cooling lake, the other damaging a air chimney for plant buildings in the compound. The reactor was shut down temporarily for inspection.7

12 May 1976: Maine--Two bombs exploded in the headquarters of the Central Maine Power Company in Augusta; a Fred Hampton Unit of the People's Forces claimed responsibility and demanded end to expansion of nuclear powerplants.8

10 Oct 1977: Oregon--Bomb exploded next to visitor center at Trojan NPS, with Environmental Assault Unit of the New World Liberation Front claiming responsibility.9

18 Dec 1977: Spain--4 ETA terrorists attack guard post at Lemoniz NPS, with one terrorist killed; ETA later claimed to have planned to blow up the reactors.10

17 Mar 1978: Spain--Bomb exploded in steam generator of Lemoniz NPS killing 2 construction workers and injuring 14, ten minutes after ETA phone call warned of bomb; damage amounted to $6,000,000.11

1979: France--Environmental terrorists cause $20 million in damages at a nuclear plant.12

1979: Virginia--2 plant operator trainees entered fuel storage building at Surry NPS and damaged four new fuel  assemblies by pouring sodium hydroxide on them.13

Jan 1979: North Carolina--An employee of a GE subcontractor sent extortion letter with sample of uranium dioxide to general manager of GE nuclear faility in Wilmington. Individual had stolen two 5-gallon containers of uranium dioxide and threatened to disperse them in unnamed U.S. city unless he received $100,000 ransom. He was arrested and sentenced to 15 years.14

13 Jun 1979: Spain--Two ETA guerrillas planted bomb in turbine room of Lemoniz NPS which was later detonated 25 minutes after a warning call. One worker who did not evacuate was killed; a tank containing 5,000 liters of oil was ignited and turbine components were moderately damaged. The ETA claimed responsibility on 16 June.15

11 Nov 1979: Spain--5 ETA guerrillas entered Equipos Nucleares (Nuclear Instruments) factory in Maliano, planted explosives and kidnapped the 10 guards on duty; guards were released near Santander-Vizcaya border. Charges exploded after midnight, causing $6,000,000 in damage mostly to one end of main factory building. ETA claimed responsibility on 13 November.16

before 1980: France--Radioactive graphite fuel element plugs placed under driver's seat of a car; victim sustained 25-30 rad dose to his spinal bone marrow and 400-500 rads to his testes. Perpetrator was tried and convicted of poisoning by radiation, fined $1,000, and served 9 months in prison.17

1981: New York--fuel oil filter drains were closed on backup diesel power generators at Nine Mile Point Unit 1, apparently intentionally, preventing their startup.18

1981: Ohio--water valve was found shut, apparently intentionally, at Beaver Valley NPS, leaving high-pressure portion of emergency cooling system disabled.19

1982: France--Five rockets fired into Creys-Malville nuclear facility, causing minor damage.20
Aug 1982: New Jersey--values were found closed on backup diesel generator at Salem Unit II NPS, apparently intentionally, which would prevent generator start-up.21

1983: West Germany--Four West Germans gain forced entry to a Pershing missile site and attempt to destroy a missile with crowbars.22

12 Nov 1984: Missouri--Four Catholic peace activists of the Silo Pruning Hooks entered Minuteman ICBM site near Higginsville and did over $10,000 worth of damage to equipment with a jack hammer; all were arrested and charged with destruction of federal property.23

Apr 1985: New York--Credible claim emerged that New York City's water reservoirs had been contaminated with plutonium; testing detected femtocurie levels of plutonium in the water.24

Jun 1985: Arizona--Report of intentional tampering with water valves at Palo Verde NPS.25

after 1987: Pennsylvania--Mentally ill man drives his station wagon through the fence at Three Mile Island nuclear power plant and wanders on foot for a period of time before being captured.26

28 Nov 1987: California--Bomb exploded at 1:30 A.M. in parking lot of Sandia National Laboratories (next to LLNL); 32 hours later a caller claimed responsibility for the Nuclear Liberation Front, although link was unconfirmed.27

Feb 1990: Azerbaijan--Azerbeijani rebels unsuccessfully attacked a Soviet military depot near Baku where nuclear weapons are stored; Soviet troops were sent to secure the base.28

Jan 1992: Iran--Egyptian newspaper claimed Iran had bought three Soviet nuclear warheads from Kazakhstan for $150 million; Kazakhstan denied the report. In April Russian intelligence reported Iran had obtained at least two warheads from Kazakhstan; in July a Kazakh official said the three reportedly missing warheads were in test shafts at the Kazakh test site; in September a U.S. congressional task force alleged Iran had obtained 4 Soviet warheads (including 2 operational): two 40 kt SRBM warheads, one 50 kt NGB, and one 0.1 kt AFAP. By 1994 Russia said the warheads were accounted for; Israeli officials suggest the warheads were borrowed for disassembly and reverse engineering.29

Mar 1992: CIS--Reportedly, box of radioactive material stolen from Pridniestroviye, Transdnestr; thieves threatened to blow up the material if fighting in Moldova was not stopped.30

1993: Russia--A radioactive substance was planted in the chair of Vladimir Kaplun, director of a Russian packing company; over several weeks Kaplun contracted radiation sickness and died.31

Nov 1993: Russia--Two nuclear warheads reportedly stolen by two employees of the Zlatoust-36 Instrument Building Plant near Chelyabinsk, a weapons assembly facility; weapons recovered in a nearby residential garage and the employees arrested shortly afterwards.32

Mar 1994: Russia--At SS-25 ICBM site at Barnaul in Siberia, a Russian soldier opens fire with sub-machine gun and kills commander and two other soldiers; other soldiers could not return fire because they would have had to fire towards the SS-25; the soldier was persuaded to surrender after three hours, having taking refuge in an armoured vehicle.33

23 Nov 1995: Russia--Shamil Basayev, Chechen rebel commander, directs television news crew to a parcel of cesium-137 buried in Izmailovsky Park, eastern Moscow; parcel reportedly posed no threat and was removed.
Parcel weighed 32 kg, contained 10-50 mCi, and was part of a hospital x-ray machine taken in a prior raid.34

Dec 1995: France--Saboteurs put salt into a cooling contour of one of the Blayais nuclear power reactors.35

9 Jan 1996: Russia--Chechen fighters attack a Russian military airfield at Kizlyar unsucessfully, then temporarily take about 2,000 civilian hostages.36

Jun 1996: New York--several individuals arrested in plot to kill Republican officials; seized weapons included radioactive materials.37

after 1996: Russia--Gunman barracades himself in a nuclear submarine and holds police at bay for several hours.38

May 1997: Russia--Aleksandr Lebed claims privately and later publicly that a number of Soviet ADMs disguised as suitcases are missing; his claims are affirmed by some but no concrete evidence emerges.39

Nov 1997: Russia--Several threats to sabotage submarine nuclear reactors are made by one or more Murmansk shipyard workers in demanding back pay they are owed.40

19 Aug 1999: United States--Andris Blakis spread phosphorous-32 on the chair of a co-worker in Los Angeles, CA, causing a dose to the co-worker of a few tenths of a rem; Blakis was arrested and charged.41
6-8 Jun 2000: Japan--Tsugio Uchinishi sent letters laced with monazite (a thorium-containing mineral) to 10 government offices in Tokyo in protest of illegal uranium exports to North Korea.42

20 Dec 2000: Japan--A man scattered a small amount of iodine-125 at a subway ticket gate in Osaka; the man was arrested, and no injuries resulted.43

2001: worldwide--6 incidents involving terrorism with nuclear or radiological materials.44