The war in Ukraine has been going on for 15 days. For the first time in history, hostilities are taking place in a country with a developed nuclear infrastructure, and for the first time humanity is facing questions important for everyone without exception: how to ensure the safety of working nuclear power plants, storage facilities for spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste under such conditions.
Ukraine is the home of 4 nuclear power plants (15 power units), as well as the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which has been mothballed and nevertheless requires constant maintenance. Lately, two nuclear power plants – the closed Chernobyl NPP and the operating Zaporizhzhia NPP – have been seized by Russian troops with battles. Both of these plants have spent nuclear waste storage facilities, which are just as dangerous as the reactors. Another nuclear power plant, the South Ukraine plant, is in an active combat zone.
In addition, on March 6, Russian troops, who regularly bombard Kharkiv, launched another strike against the city: they fired a Grad multiple rocket launcher at the Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology, which houses a nuclear research reactor. It is loaded with 37 nuclear fuel elements. Damage to the reactor and nuclear material storage facility is also dangerous.
Seizing the plant is one thing. It is important to ensure its safety and operation afterward. There are already serious problems with this.
Chernobyl NPP: balancing on the brink of disaster
Chernobyl has been 15 days without a new shift. The current shift started work on February 23 and the new shift had no time to replace them before the invasion of the Russians. Now there are about 210 people – 95 specialists, station security guards, doctors, and firemen – who are practically held, hostage. According to official information, the personnel of the station is given a rest, but usually, one shift at the station lasts 12 hours, and now the same people have worked for more than two weeks under stress and pressure under the supervision of the military. At such dangerous facilities, any mistake – even just from fatigue – can cost the lives of thousands of people. Ukrainian authorities have already asked the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to help rotate the personnel of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. So far, to no avail.
On March 9, it emerged that the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and the town of Slavutich were completely de-energized as a result of the actions of Russian troops in the Exclusion Zone. It is still impossible to restore the power supply. At the same time, the plant is in critical need of electricity, as the cooling system of the spent nuclear fuel storage facility depends on it.
What is the threat of all this? Olga Kosharnaya, director of information and public relations for the association-Ukrainian Nuclear Forum, explains:
“As a result of the hostilities, the 750 kV Kiyv-NPP line was damaged. NPP and all nuclear facilities in the Exclusion Zone – SAYAP-1, SAYAP-2 were left without a power supply. SAYYAP-1 is a wet-type storage facility for spent nuclear fuel. SAYYAP-2 is a dry storage facility. Emergency diesel generators are on to supply power to safety-critical systems. But there is only a 48-hour supply of diesel fuel.
SAYAP is a storage facility for spent nuclear fuel.
The SAYAP-1 needs cooling provided by pumps to remove residual heat. If the pumps do not work, the heat release will not be removed, the water in the pool could boil, which would lead to the formation of radioactive steam, followed by the melting of structures, which would lead to a severe accident. If ventilation systems do not work, the radiation dose to personnel will increase, and radioactive gas and steam emissions will spread not only to Ukraine but also to Belarus and the Russian Federation.
SHVYAP-2 will not be affected by the lack of electricity, because concrete containers are installed in concrete modules and cooling takes place through natural ventilation.
On March 10, Alyaksandr Lukashenka said to the military that the ChNPP would be connected to the Belarusian energy system. But it looks like there will be more and more such problems that will require a prompt solution. No country in the world has had its nuclear power plants attacked by the armed forces of another state. No one designed them with the expectation that a war would take place nearby.
Seizure of a nuclear power plant as an act of terrorism?
On March 4, it emerged that Russians used weapons (!) to attack the working Zaporizhzhia NPP, the largest nuclear power plant in Europe. Six VVER-1000 water-cooled nuclear reactors are operating at the plant. Let’s dwell on them in greater detail, since the same reactors are installed at other operating plants.
The VVER-1000 reactors differ from Chernobyl reactors and are not graphite-fueled, they are pressurized water reactors. They are old Soviet reactors, covered with protective shields. These caps protect mainly from the internal impact, but not that much from the external one: mostly from snow, wind, hurricane. Such a containment can theoretically withstand a fall of a small aircraft, but it will not protect the reactor from large-caliber artillery fire.
If depressurized or damaged, the reactor under pressure will “spit out” most of the hazardous substances into the environment. Then, depending on the direction of the wind, these substances will fall to the ground and make it impossible to farm vast areas and live there. That is, the situation will be comparable to the famous Chernobyl disaster.
In addition, the plants have container storage facilities with spent nuclear fuel, which poses an even greater danger if they are accidentally or intentionally damaged. For example, at the Zaporizhzhya NPP, the containers are directly on the industrial site, and a fire at the plant occurred during military operations in close proximity to the plant.
Hazardous radionuclides such as cesium, strontium, and plutonium remain in concentrated amounts in the storage tanks. There is no pressure and temperature like in a reactor, so if a shell hits it, it will most likely reach hundreds of meters, not dozens of kilometers. The bad thing here is that this is very concentrated radioactive waste, very evil substances. They can end up on the site of the nuclear power plant, they can be blown away by the wind and washed away by the rain, they can pollute the soil and rivers. There is no way to get them back. A huge number of hazardous radionuclides will be released into the environment and will form an area of 30-100 km, unfit for any living thing.
Impotence of the IAEA and the power of the powerless
The responsibility for the safety of the seized nuclear power plants rests with the one who controls the facility. In our case, it is Russia. However, the IAEA for some reason is still demanding explanations from Ukraine that cannot send its representatives and inspectors there. By indirect signs, there are assumptions that representatives of Rosatom are present at Zaporizhzhia NPP to control the work of the plant and the personnel taken hostage. We did not manage to get an official comment from the corporation as their press service was not available.
Rafael Grossi, director-general of the IAEA, urged to immediately renounce violence and the use of weapons near nuclear power plants.
“Such empty calls are evidence of the impotence of the IAEA. As of February 24, the IAEA should have recruited a dozen of its representatives and sent them to Ukrainian nuclear power plants for monitoring. Perhaps this would have been a deterrent for Russia. Ukraine had asked for this. The IAEA should have reminded that there are nuclear facilities on the territory of the country attacked by Russia and demanded a kind of safety zone, 20-30 kilometers around the nuclear power plants. Now it is too late,” Russian nuclear physicist and environmentalist Andrei Ozharovsky told Belsat.
In 2009, it was declared that any armed attack or threat to attack a nuclear facility used for peaceful purposes would violate principles of the UN Charter, international law, and the IAEA Statute. After February 24, the IAEA was obliged to go to the UN to document the violations.
“But the IAEA has evaded, there is no hope for this organization. It’s appalling that once again, the international community can neither stop the aggressor nor protect the especially dangerous nuclear infrastructure facilities,” says the expert.
The actions of Russian troops fall under Article 2 of the International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism and Article 7 of the Convention for the Protection of Nuclear Material (Russia is a party to these conventions) and can be viewed as crimes that should be subject to strict sanctions.
“It is necessary to initiate criminal proceedings in international courts and hold the Russian Federation accountable. It is also necessary to impose sanctions on Rosatom and exclude Russia from all nuclear associations of the world,” Olga Kosharnaya says.
She calls on nuclear workers of the world to unite and put pressure on their governments to prevent a catastrophe in Ukraine.
In the meantime, ordinary people can monitor the level of radiation background themselves through this map.
You can track wind direction here: https://www.windy.com/.
