Russian attacks in Ukraine have put Chernobyl and other nuclear sites at risk, scientists say. An accident could have worldwide consequences
In case of a complete power outage, there is a risk of disabling the safety of important systems and equipment, in particular: ventilation, heat dissipation, technological, and radiation control systems. The possibility of remote control over nuclear and radiation safety indicators at storage facilities, the New Safe Confinement facility, and other facilities will be lost. Operators will be unable to control the level and temperature of water in spent nuclear fuel storage pools.
There are long-lived radionuclides in the spent nuclear fuel storage, which in case of an accident can get into the Kakhovka Reservoir, and further along the Dnipro river into the Black Sea. A huge area would be contaminated by radiation for thousands of years. If there is an accident with one power unit or one container for spent fuel, depending on the direction of wind the radioactive cloud will affect Russia, Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, and other border countries.
At Zaporizhzhya, the threat depends on the direction of the wind at the time of the possible accident. During the recent fighting, the wind blew to the southeast, towards Crimea, Melitopol, Rostov, Turkey, the Black Sea. And the Black Sea connects with the Mediterranean, and therefore, radioactive contamination in case of an accident will spread throughout the basin and harm many more countries.
The problem is that the accident at the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant [ZNPP], if it happens, may be quite different from what happened at Chernobyl. The construction of reactors at ZNPP is much safer than at Chernobyl, but the Chernobyl accident was addressed by the entire Soviet Union. Now, in the conditions of hostilities, the elimination of the accident will be complicated, and Ukraine simply does not have the resources to do it.
It is impossible to predict in any way how events will move forward. Russians are crazy, violating all international agreements. No one with common sense will enter the territory of a nuclear plant with artillery weapons. For us, as experts who helped overcome the consequences of the Fukushima accident, such behavior does not even fit into our understanding of the world. For us, it’s as if the river flowed up in the sky by itself or the sky turned orange.
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