The panel said that neither federal regulators nor the industry have fully determined the vulnerabilities for such an attack and that specific risks ''can only be understood by examining . . . spent-fuel storage at each plant."
The report, a declassified version of which was released yesterday, has been the subject of intense internal debate between panel members and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which had opposed its release and has called some of its recommendations unnecessary.
The agency said in a statement it considers the NAS study important and is giving its recommendations ''serious consideration."
But it also said it considers reactor spent-fuel pools ''well protected by physical barriers, armed guards, intrusion detection systems, area surveillance systems," and limits on access by workers at power plants.
After the classified document was provided to members of Congress last month, the NRC chairman, Nils Diaz, called some of the panel's assessments unreasonable in a letter to legislators and said that some of its conclusions ''lacked sound technical basis."
''Today spent fuel is better protected than ever," Diaz wrote.
But in its report, the NAS panel said that spent-fuel pools, 100,000 gallons of circulating water designed to store used-fuel rods after they are removed from the reactor, remain tempting potential targets for terrorists.
Protecting them is ''a critical national security issue," said Bruce Alberts, president of the National Academy of Sciences.
The panel of scientists found that an attack using an aircraft or high explosive could under some conditions lead to a draining of the spent-fuel pool, unleashing a high-temperature fire and release of large amounts of radiation.
It urged the NRC to require the industry to take short-term measures that it said would mitigate some of the danger, including reconfiguring the position of fuel assemblies to more evenly distribute decay-heat loads and installing a water spray system to cool the fuel should the facility be damaged in an attack.
