IAEA inspects Zaporizhzhya as attacks take place in regions where rest of nuclear power plants are located
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, one of the biggest fears of the international community has been that nuclear power plants will be targeted. A fear that became reality in the early days of last March, when Kremlin troops took control of the facilities in Zaporizhzhya, the largest in Europe. As a result of that takeover, concerns about nuclear risk arose in the West, even with the recent memory of the Chernobyl disaster.
The attacks continued in these months in the Zaporizhzhya region, which has raised the alarm. Authorities from different countries (such as Ukraine, France and the United Kingdom, among others) have repeatedly requested, on the one hand, the involvement of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to monitor the security of the system and, on the other hand, the creation of a demilitarized zone around the nuclear power plant. “Speaking more generally, we should be concerned that nuclear facilities are military targets because there are real risks of a nuclear accident,” Dr. Graham Allison, a nuclear safety expert at Harvard University, told the BBC.
The danger is real, although the safety of places like this is also powerful. Claire Corkhill, a nuclear materials expert at the University of Sheffield, points out to the same medium that there are several mechanisms to avoid risks from radioactivity. “If there were a fire in the reactor building, the automatic safety systems would extinguish it immediately,” he explains. “An explosion would only occur if there were a nuclear meltdown, which could be caused by a failure in the electricity supply to the site and damage to backup generators.” Only if that happens at a working nuclear power plant, “can there be an explosion like the one that happened in Fukushima in 2011”.
In recent weeks, both the Ukrainian authorities and the IAEA have stated that the situation is “under control” and that no “radioactivity leaks” have yet occurred, although the power plant has been shut down from time to time as a precaution.
Yesterday, a team of fourteen experts finally managed to reach Zaporizhzhya despite hostilities – Russia and Ukraine accused each other of boycotting the inspectors’ visit with bombing – thus allaying the fears of the West. “I think we were able to gather a lot of information in these few hours. I saw the most important things that I needed to see and his explanations were very clear,” said UN agency director Rafael Grossi after the visit. It is all he said. His words did not warn of a serious situation for the time being. in the facilities, so it looks like the public is out of nuclear danger.
Until now, the main concern has been Zaporizhzhya (with six reactors and a capacity of 5,700 megawatts), but it is not the only nuclear power plant in Ukraine. There are four in total, although only this one – the largest in Europe – is in Russian hands. For now. The others are Rivne, Khmeltniski and South Central.
Located in the northwest near the border with Belarus, Rivne is the largest power generation company in the western region of the country. It currently has four reactors (two rated at 440 megawatts and another two at 1,000), although Kiev announced construction of a fifth in mid-August, scheduled for 2023. The IAEA inspected the facilities in mid-July to verify the absence of undeclared nuclear material, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
Though it remains under Ukrainian control, this could change as Kremlin troops attacked the Rivne region, where the factory is located. Last Wednesday, the last offensive in this area took place. The facilities director, Pavlo Pavlishin, told ‘France 24’ that they will not hand over the station. “Why should we? This is our power plant, these are our people, our staff, why should we give up anything? We are ready to fight, ready to defend ourselves, we will defend the plant and no one will hand it over,” he said. he.
Last week there were also clashes a few kilometers south of Rivne, which is home to the country’s third nuclear power plant, Khmelnitsky. With two fully operational reactors – and two more under construction – it has a total capacity of 1,900 megawatts. United Nations nuclear energy experts analyzed the plant last March. Everything was under control, and in Ukrainian hands too. The attacks also took place in this region in the west of the country, but so far the red alarm has not been activated.
Finally, about 170 kilometers from the city of Odessa is the Central Sur, which has three reactors operating at full capacity and generating 2,850 megawatts of power. It is still under Kiev control. According to the IAEA, the fifteen Ukrainian reactors are capable of producing a total of 13,107 megawatts, about double Spain’s production (7,121) – slightly more than Zaporizhzhya’s exclusive capacity (5,700)–. The calculation concludes with Chernobyl’s four inactive reactors.
And what is the situation at European level? According to the balance made by Euroestat in 2019, 26% of the total energy production in the EU came from nuclear power plants. A total of 106 reactors are in operation, producing approximately 765,337 gigawatt hours. France is the leading country in this type of energy, with up to 58 reactors. That same year, the French country produced 52% of the EU total. This is followed by Germany (9.8%), Sweden (8.6%) and Spain (7.6%). Russia, for its part, has twelve nuclear power plants with a total of thirty reactors.
Source: La Verdad
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