Fear of nuclear catastrophe grows – Ukrainians report
Russians wire Zaporizhia nuclear plant with explosives
According to Ukrainian information, Russian troops have connected energy units from the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant to explosives. The fear of a nuclear catastrophe continues to grow.
The Zaporizhia nuclear power plant near the southern Ukrainian city of the same name is increasingly becoming the focus of attention during the Ukraine war. Since the beginning of March, the largest nuclear power plant in Europe has been occupied by Russian troops, and since July it has been used as a Russian command post and fortress.
At the beginning of August, two attacks on the nuclear power plant took place within a few days – both sides blame each other. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), some auxiliary facilities were hit and radiation monitors damaged.
The UN Secretary-General António Guterres (73) said about the attacks at the weekend: “Every attack on a nuclear power plant is a suicide action.” The attacks showed “the very real danger of a nuclear catastrophe,” said IAEA chief Rafael Grossi (61).
Russians Wire Nuclear Power Plants with Explosives – Is the Catastrophe Coming?
The Ukrainians said that Russian troops had wired power units of the nuclear power plant with explosives. This has not been confirmed by the Russian side. The situation on the Dnieper River is getting worse and worse.
Dmytro Kuleba (41), Ukraine’s Foreign Minister, warned as early as March when the first fires broke out in Zaporizhia: a fire in Zaporizhia could be ten times worse than Chernobyl. The 1986 explosion at a nuclear power plant in northern Ukraine is considered the most catastrophic nuclear disaster in history.
However, it must be noted that Zaporizhia, with its six reactors – of which only two are currently in operation – is larger but also more modern than Chernobyl. Safety standards are higher, and triggering a nuclear catastrophe would take more than isolated missile strikes.
Andreas Pautz (53), Head of Nuclear Safety Research at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), explains in an interview with Blick: “Of course, the shelling of a nuclear facility worries me a lot. Before a nuclear catastrophe occurs, however, the reactors would have to be seriously damaged and the emergency cooling systems would have to be so severely impaired that they would no longer be able to guarantee the cooling of the reactors.”
Distribution of radioactive air depends on season
However, if radioactive material were to escape into the environment, the distribution would depend on the season. comes to this conclusion a paper by US researchers. During the summer months, air packets carrying radioactively contaminated aerosols can fly over countries in central, northern, southern and southeastern Europe, parts of the Middle East, northern Asia and even northern Africa.