Obviously we don’t want this to happen but claims of deaths from cancer are overblown.
From the NYTimes:
But there were probably less than 1,000 “excess” cancer deaths (out of 120,000 survivors) from the atomic bombings in 1945. It’s doubtful that a terrorist attack on a nuclear facility could come close to that sort of event.
From the 2006 NRC report on the atomic bomb survivors, “Health Risks from Exposure to Low Levels of Ionizing Radiation“:
What is important to the terrorists is that it would terrify millions of Americans for a LOOOONG time.
What’s more, they don’t even have to attack a nuclear power plant. They could simply attack any facility that has been generating radioactive waste or using radioactive materials – universities, hospitals, high-tech medical clinics.
Since the EPA and the Congress have been unable to provide a safe storage facility for radioactive waste (including low-level waste such as contaminated clothing and cloves generated as a by-product of handling radioactive materials) – such as Yucca Mountain – the waste remains stored ‘temporarily’ above ground in thousands of diverse and scattered facilities that simply cannot be properly secured against terrorists.