By Graziella L. Posted March 12, 2022 1:24 PM
Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, the world community has been concerned about the question of what will happen in Europe if the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is bombed?
Chernobyl is once again in the focus of attention of Europeans. That nuclear disaster what happened in 1986 left its mark on the population, which is concerned new radioactive leak as the war rages in Ukraine. What would be the consequences if the plant and its sarcophagus were damaged bombardment ?
At the end of February, Russian troops forcibly took control of the site of the nuclear power plant, a source in the Russian security services indicated that it was symbolic point send a signal to NATO not to intervene. But this week the nuclear power plant was powerless. Although it has not been in operation since the disaster nearly 35 years ago, the station still maintains high levels of radioactivity that the International Atomic Energy Agency has not heard from since the Russians arrived.
The organization wants to reassure that there was no power outage. no big impact on site safety “the heat load of the spent fuel pool and the volume of cooling water is sufficient to ensure efficient heat removal without electricity.” But in the event of a bombing, the situation would quickly become more dramatic.
But then, what are the implications for Europe ? If in 1986 France had succeeded in bringing the radioactive cloud to a halt at the country’s borders, wouldn’t public health be threatened this time? The authorities are still concerned, but want encouraging, the impact will be less than Chernobyl or even Fukushima. At the time, it was “explosions at a working reactor that released everything at once,” and today “one can imagine that there will be releases, but to a lesser extent in terms of their radioactive harm,” Francis Sorin, an honorary member, told Cnews. in the Higher Committee for Transparency and Information on Nuclear Safety.
Since 1986, the radioactivity present in situ has fallen, becoming a solid rather than a gas or liquid, making it less corrosive. But in the event of shelling of a working power plant, in particular Zaporozhyewhich has recently been damaged by a fire, the damage will be significantwithout the possibility of cooling the molten fuel rods.