Published on: 03/04/2022 – 18:42
Europe’s largest nuclear facility, the Zaporozhye power plant in southern Ukraine, was bombed by Russia on Thursday night, with no reported leaks. But facing the threat of an accident, what are the risks of the 15 reactors located on the territory?
Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, Zaporozhye, in southern Ukraine, was hit by fire on Friday (March 4th) night after it was bombed by Russian forces. According to Rafael Mariano Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), no leaks were reported. But facing the threat of a nuclear accident, he said he was “ready” to go there, as well as to Chernobyl, to inspect installations under Russian military control.
The situation is “unprecedented,” Rafael Mariono Grossi said before warning: “The situation could be dramatic, we know what is at stake.” This is indeed the first time that such a nuclear state has experienced war on its own land.
The park of Ukraine, which is the eighth nuclear power in the world, has 15 operating reactors located on four sites, in Zaporozhye, Rivne, Khmelnitsky and in southern Ukraine in Yuzhnoukrainsk, in the region of Nikolaev, to which in addition to the four reactors at shutdown at the old Chernobyl power plant. A “substantial” panel of nuclear installations, said Karin Erviu, deputy director general in charge of the crisis unit of the Institute for Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN), contacted by France 24.
Ukraine has 15 nuclear reactors located on four sites. © France 24
Concrete protective fences
Most of the Ukrainian nuclear fleet consists of reactors with pressurized water of 1000 electric megawatts Russian design. They will soon be the “main risk” of nuclear accidents, according to Karin Herviu.
The standards adopted to ensure them are “comparable to those adopted by France and Europe,” he said. They are protected by reinforced concrete enclosures, which allow limiting the radioactivity in case of deterioration of the reactor core. Designed to withstand different types of missiles, however, they can be degraded if deliberately aimed.
Thus, the power plant in Zaporizhia, located 80 kilometers from Kyiv, continued to operate normally tonight, despite the fire started by an unidentified Russian projectile. Only one of its six VVER-1000 reactors is currently in operation, and the other five continue to cool “normally”, according to information provided by the Ukrainian safety authority IRSN, who added that the usual Ukrainian operators were still in charge of running the control room.
Only two smaller reactors, those at the Rivne power plant in southwestern Ukraine, are not equipped with such a protection chamber. Put into operation in the late 1970s, they may pose more risks in the event of an attack, even if security measures around them have been strengthened in recent years. “Reactors in Rivne are the most vulnerable,” said Dominique Grenes, a doctor of nuclear physics and international consultant who was contacted by France 24. If their hearts melted, we could find ourselves in a situation comparable to that in Fukushima was equipped with such an enclosure. ”
Radioactive waste
Who says nuclear power plants also say radioactive waste. Ukraine has several cooling pools to hold spent fuel from the reactors of various power plants, radioactive waste storage sites and dry storage facilities. There are also research and low power reactors. Unlike highly secure reactors, not all of these dozens of storage sites are designed to withstand bombing. Their attack can cause a leak of radioactive waste.
“A new Chernobyl is impossible,” said Dominic Grenes. “It’s scary to hear that the Russians have taken over a power plant, but even if they fight inside, there is little chance of causing an accident. Protection is never absolute, but the risk of a nuclear accident is unlikely.
The danger of a deliberate Russian attack on a Ukrainian nuclear power plant remains.
“It is common sense to think that a deliberate attack to destroy reactors makes absolutely no sense as a tactical target. This is too great a risk for the Russian military for its own people and for its own territory, “said Benjamin Hautekuvertur, a senior researcher at the Foundation for Strategic Studies, interviewed by France 24.” It seems obvious that control of the 15 reactors , which make up the entire Ukrainian energy fleet and which account for about half of the country’s electricity production, could be a reasonable goal of the current military operation. [si l’on peut s’exprimer ainsi]but obviously not their destruction, “he concluded.
However, the chief researcher notes that by choosing to bomb the Zaporozhye power plant, Russia has deliberately violated the principles it undertook to follow as a member of the AEIA. Indeed, it is strictly forbidden to attack civilian nuclear facilities. The country also ignored the International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism, adopted in 2005 by the United Nations on a proposal … from the Russian Federation.
