Nuclear power plants are exploited. What could happen?
Yesterday, the National Nuclear Energy Production Company of Ukraine Notice on Telegram that the Russian invasion forces installed and activated mines in the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (NPP). As part of this act of terror, they also announced their readiness to blow up the facility on command.
The presence of mines in power units was confirmed by Ukrainian intelligence.
The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, and 9th in the world. Image credit: Ralf1969 past WikimediaLicense GFDL
Western countries largely ignore the original incident that occurred on March 4, 2022, when the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant and a nearby thermal power plant were seized by the Russian military.
At least some heavy battles took place on the territory of the Zaporizhzhia NPP. The plant lost 1.3 GW of capacity in the first 2 hour battle. Two station units were closed to reduce risk, as during the fighting a fire broke out outside the main complex and some areas around the plant suffered heavy damage.
Two additional generating sets were disconnected from the grid and stopped working when the emergency protection system was activated, as continued attacks by Russian forces damaged additional structures. . As of July 22, two reactors in operation.
Energoatom, the company that runs Zaporizhzhia NPP, claims that the Russians do not hide Their plan to blackmail the whole world.
The Zaporizhzhia plant has six pressurized light water nuclear reactors (PWRs), each producing 950 MW of electrical energy, with a total generating capacity of 5,700 MW. This capacity is enough to generate more than a fifth of the total electricity generated in Ukraine. For comparison, the nameplate capacity of scandal Chernobyl nuclear power plant is ‘only’ 3,515 MW, while radioactive contamination due to the 1986 incident has spread all over Europe. Needless to say, we need to avoid anything of the same kind.
So far, Zaporizhzhia NPP’s protection protocols are working as expected and fortunately no major kernel crashes have occurred. This time, the situation was different. The exact locations of explosives are difficult to determine, and thus potential outcomes cannot be predicted in the event they are detonated.
However, the world must prepare for the most difficult situation. The Secretary-General of the United Nations has stated that “any attack on a nuclear plant is an act of suicide”, repeatedly urging access to IAEA inspectors. The President of Ukraine directly accused Russia of carrying out “nuclear terrorism”.
