What happens if Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant explodes?
Tension grows over a possible accident at the Ukrainian nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia which has been occupied by the Russians since the beginning of the war. Kyiv and Moscow accuse each other but the International Atomic Energy Agency reassures. The facts and the explanation of the physicist Luca Romano on why there is no reason to engage in atomic terrorism
While for days an exchange of accusations has been underway between Ukraine and Russia on possible imminent attacks on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Mariano Grossi, reassures on the fact that the experts sent on the spot "they did not find mines or other explosives", arousing the irritation of Kyiv.
But what is the real situation and what would be the risks if the Ukrainian nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia were to explode?
THE EXCHANGE OF CHARGES BETWEEN UKRAINE AND RUSSIA
Since the outbreak of war on February 24, 2022, Russia and Ukraine have regularly accused each other of endangering the safety of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, occupied by the Russians since the first days of March 2022. The plant is the largest in the country and in Europe and the fifth largest in the world.
In recent days, tension has mounted even more because President Volodymyr Zelensky, quoting the intelligent Ukrainian, said that Russia is "preparing a provocation" at the plant, on the roof of which explosives are allegedly planted. The intelligence services also claim that Russian employees working at the plant have been told to leave the area by July 5.
Moscow denies it and instead reiterates that Kyiv will attack the plant causing an accident "Wednesday night 5 July" using "high-precision weapons and kamikaze drones". This was reported to the Rossiya 24 television channel, as reported by Rai News , by Renat Karchaa, the adviser to the director general of Rosenergoatom, the Russian atomic agency.
There was also the always inappropriate comment by the deputy chairman of the Security Council of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev, who declared that "a nuclear apocalypse is not only possible, but also quite probable".
DIFFERENCES AND SIMILARITIES WITH THE CHERNOBYL AND FUKUSHIMA POWER STATIONS
The physicist Luca Romano , nuclear expert and author of the book “The Atom Lawyer. In defense of nuclear energy” he explained on Twitter what is the current situation inside the Zaporizhzhia plant and what are the risks of a possible accident starting from facts and data relating to the Chernobyl and Fukushima disasters.
WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IN THE EVENT OF AN EXPLOSION?
Based on this information, Romano explains what the situation is in Zaporizhzhia and why "the risks to human health would be very close to statistical zero".
“So what are we talking about?” asks the physicist. For Romano it is very "simple" and explains the "pantomime" thus:
The real and "very serious" problem, however, for the expert are "the psychological consequences of the accidents" because "both in the case of Chernobyl and Fukushima panic and social stigma have caused many more deaths than radiation. Which is why continuing to feed this psychosis is not good for anyone ”. About this you can read the studies published in the National Library of Medicine and Frontiers in Psychiatry .
Final note on the greater safety of the Zaporizhzhia facility compared to Chernobyl and Fukushima:
THE IMAGES OF WESTERN INTELLIGENCE THAT CONFIRM THE WORDS OF THE IAEA
Although the IAEA maintains that "the safety of the plant remains precarious", a video of Tg1 with exclusive satellite images shared by Western intelligence services reassures the situation as "all the structures" of the plant "are normal, starting from the basin cooling, despite the drying up of the Dnipro after the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam”.
“No criticality – he continues – not even for the deposit of radioactive waste. Same situation in the various administrative and logistic areas. Findings that confirm what the head of the IAEA said”.
WHY RUSSIA DOESN'T WANT TO CAUSE AN ACCIDENT
Russia, however, while continuing to fuel atomic anxiety, would not have good reasons for going all the way because, as the manifesto observes, "the winds can carry them [the radiations, ed. ] to the west (towards the countries of the European Union), but also to the east, towards Russia itself” and “it would therefore make no sense for the Russians to sabotage the largest nuclear plant in Europe, built by the USSR between 1980 and 1996”.
Furthermore, "an accident would have very serious economic repercussions on the Russian nuclear industry itself, which today has contracts for about 250 billion dollars".
WHAT IF THERE WERE MINES?
Finally, Romano clarifies that if the presence of mines were confirmed – which to date it is not – he hypothesizes that it could be a way to "put the plant out of action to damage Ukraine" because "making a 6 GW plant unusable it's a big blow to the reconstruction”.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/energia/cosa-succede-se-la-centrale-nucleare-ucraina-di-zaporizhzhia-esplode/ on Wed, 05 Jul 2023 09:50:02 +0000.