Jubilee Post News & Views
Special Desk
As war intensifies with claims from both sides of killing and hostages worries are also growing for the safety of Ukraine’s nuclear power plants.
Nuclear experts are increasingly worried as Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine continues. To number Ukraine has 15 reactors that are at high risk for various reasons connected to war.
“The situation in Ukraine is unprecedented and I continue to be gravely concerned,” Rafael Mariano Grossi, the International Atomic Energy Agency Director General said in an statement with the press.
“I have called for restraint from all measures or actions that could jeopardize the security of nuclear and other radioactive material, and the safe operation of any nuclear facilities in Ukraine, because any such incident could have severe consequences,” pointed the Director General.
Ukraine’s 15 nuclear reactors, which typically generate over half of the country’s power, have worrisome vulnerabilities in a warzone. Wayward explosions or a catastrophic failure of Ukraine’s power grid are the biggest concerns for now since the IAEA and experts whom remain worried that Russia’s deliberate target to nuclear power plants might harm.
Ukraine already has experience with nuclear catastrophe. In 1986, a reactor at Chernobyl exploded. Power supply is two way in a reactor. One side it generates electricity and on the other and more significant side it needs electricity to keep the plant reactor cool.
Now, officials are working to prevent history from repeating itself. Several layers of safety systems would have to fail for such a disaster to happen again. But conflict could make holes.
Nuclear power plants are very strong, and they are designed to withstand accidental aircraft crashes, but nuclear power plants are just not designed to be in a war zone. This means such plants are kept out of the war targets from the jets that fly in to the country but a degree of mistake or miscalculation can result in to a scene that took places in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
Ukraine ranks third in the world when it comes to how much of its electricity comes from nuclear energy. That power comes from 15 reactors at four separate nuclear plants. The fuel in those reactors generates tremendous heat — so they need to be constantly cooled down to prevent a catastrophic meltdown that would release radioactive isotopes. Authorities have already shut down several of the country’s reactors so that they are no longer supplying power to the grid.
Shutting a reactor off significantly cuts down the heat it generates, which means it won’t need as much water and energy for critical cooling systems. But even in a shutdown, the fuel is still extremely hot. Whether or not a reactor is currently generating power for the grid, it still needs an external source of energy to run its cooling system.
