The Ukrainian nuclear plant at Zaporizhzhia is the largest in Europe. It’s also in the middle of a conflict zone. Currently Russia has physical control of the plant. Both side are accusing each other of shelling the plant. That’s a nuclear nightmare. Right now the best we could hope for is the plant to come under some sort of UN control.
The problem with nuclear plants is that certain assumptions are made when they are constructed. One of those assumptions is that it won’t be in the middle of a war zone, hurricane, earthquake, flood or other disaster. It’s assumed that nothing will go wrong and the highly trained people will always be able to deal with any issues. Since Chernobyl we know better, but here we go again.
If this power plant was a huge solar or wind farm it would barely make the news. As it is we are looking at another disaster that could poison a huge area of Europe with fallout.
A friend’s brother is a nuclear engineer. He trained in the US Navy on nuclear powered subs. After his time in the military he went to work for the civilian world. One of his claims to fame is planning and shutting down a nuclear power station. He knows his stuff. He was asked what he thought would happen to the Zaporizhzhia plant if it was shelled.
“I’ve no idea,” he said.
He couldn’t even guess how bad it could be.
Got your potassium iodide?
-Sixbears
A decent round of shelling would likely produce a disaster at least as bad as the one at Chernobyl. The Russians did NOT build reactors like we do. No heavy thick concrete containment structure. Just a standard building.
ReplyDeleteIt would be bad -how bad is the question. Hope we don't learn the answer.
DeleteAll round it's A Bad Thing, and damn hard to pronounce.
ReplyDeleteYes indeed to your first point and I have the same thoughts with your second point.
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