According to nuclear experts and the International Atomic Energy Agency, an arm of the United Nations, the failed Chernobyl nuclear power plant in northern Ukraine and the country’s 15 operating reactors were safe and sound during the Russian invasion. sets safety standards It works for the world’s nuclear reactors and inspects them for compliance.
“The only real issue is if a nearby target is hit and causes collateral damage,” he said. Edwin Lyman“I don’t see this as an imminent radiological threat,” said a reactor expert at the Association of Concerned Scientists, a special group in Cambridge, Mass. I don’t think Russia will deliberately target a facility.”
Chernobyl nuclear power plant in 1986 had a meltdown It sent radioactive clouds over parts of Europe and left a wasteland of locally polluted lands. All four Chernobyl reactors still closedand the facility’s workforce closely monitor the safety of Chernobyl’s Unit 4 reactor, which exploded and caught fire in 1986. A exclusion zone Hundreds of square kilometers surround the abandoned facility to limit public access and settlement.
The sprawling plant, about 10 miles from Belarus, a Russian ally, is in one. The main occupation routes of Russia. Western experts said it’s in Moscow’s interest to keep Ukraine’s reactors and electricity system running smoothly if its aim is regime change rather than national destruction.
“There is a risk of a direct hit,” he said. R Scott KempA professor of nuclear science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dr. “But I think they’re going to do everything possible to prevent that because they don’t want to deal with the fallout.”
Dr. The bigger threat, Kemp said, is the disruption of Ukraine’s power grid, which could disable nuclear power plants and lead to gradual blackouts.
this Ukrainian government He said on his official website on Thursday that the Russian invasion and military takeover of Chernobyl “could lead to another ecological disaster”. The government added that if the war continues, a disaster like Chernobyl “could happen again in 2022.”
But nuclear experts did not raise sharp alarm. Rafael Mariano Grossi, director general of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, in a statement on Thursday His Ukrainian counterpart reported that the country’s 15 nuclear power plants are operating safely. As for the Chernobyl site, he added that the Ukrainian authority reported “no casualties or destruction”.
On Friday, the agency noted He cited reports of “higher radiation measurements in the Chernobyl area” and that Ukraine’s nuclear establishment said the readings could have been caused by heavy military vehicles that had stirred up soil poisoned by the 1986 accident.
The agency added that the stated readings “are low and have remained within the measured operational range in the Exclusion Zone since it was installed and therefore do not pose any hazard to the public.”
Slightly more than Ukraine received, according to the international atomic agency half of its electricity from reactors – an unusually high fraction.
Two of Ukraine’s four operational nuclear facilities are located in the far western region from Russia’s. main invasion routes and probably not damaged. The other two are in the southern region, much closer to continuing military offensives.
this Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant – Ukraine’s largest atomic power plant – home to six separate reactors. It is located on the Dnieper River, about 100 miles north of Crimea. Russia annexed southern Ukraine’s peninsula in 2014, and the breakaway zone serves as a preparation area for Russian troops as well as a main invasion route.
Understand Russia’s Attack on Ukraine
What is the basis of this invasion? Russia sees Ukraine in it natural domainHe was frustrated by Ukraine’s proximity to the West and the possibility of the country joining NATO or the European Union. Although Ukraine is not part of any, it receives financial and military aid from the United States and Europe.
Lately, World Nuclear AssociationAn industry trade group based in London, reported Ukrainian state-owned nuclear power company Energoatom has detailed some rules aimed at improving the safety and security of nuclear power plants in wartime.
The group said earlier this month, with Russia building its forces around Ukraine, Petro KotinEnergoatom’s vice president described how the bombing would prompt a nuclear power plant shutdown, and said its operators would dump its radioactive fuel “until the threat is gone”.
Mr. Kotin added that if a plant loses its external power supply, backup generators will kick in to ensure uninterrupted reactor control. Ukraine’s nuclear power plants are “ready for such a mode of operation: the stock of diesel fuel at nuclear power plants significantly exceeds established standards.”
Mr Kotin added that Ukrainian power plants are “prepared even for a plane crash” because the reactor vessels and surrounding containment areas are designed to withstand such impacts.
on fridayThe World Nuclear Association reported that security units at facilities in Ukraine are on “high alert”.