Russia took control of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine after it was attacked with artillery fire.
The attack caused a fire in the nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe.
The authorities indicate that the facility is now safe and that the radiation levels are normal.
As reported, the fire, which has already been extinguished, broke out in a training building outside the perimeter of the plant and only one of the plant’s six reactors was operating at the time.
The attack on the nuclear power plant has caused great concern around the world.
And the situation in Ukraine presents enormous challenges both with the Zaporizhia plant and with the others three active nuclear power plants in the country .
What is the importance of the Zaporizhia plant?
The Zaporizhia NPP was built between 1984 and 1995 and is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe and the ninth in the world.
The plant is located in the southeast of Ukraine, in Enerhodar. It is about 100 km from the disputed Donbas region and 200 km southeast of Kiev.
It has six reactors, each of which generates 950 MW, and a total production of 5,700 MW , enough energy for approximately 4 million homes.
- Russian forces take control of Europe’s largest nuclear plant in southern Ukraine after a fire
According to the IAEA, in normal times the plant produces around % of Ukraine’s electricity and almost half of the energy generated by nuclear power facilities of the country.
The Russian Army also took control of the Chernobyl nuclear plant, the site of the worst nuclear disaster in history .
- Chernobyl: Ukraine warns of an increase of radiation in the old nuclear power plant after falling into Russian hands
Are there any radiation threats after the attack?
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) — the UN’s nuclear watchdog — said in a statement that buildings surrounding one of the plant’s six power units were damaged but that this “does not affect its safety.”
Indicated that the fire did not affect the “essential” equipment of the plant and that there was no increase in radiation levels.
He added that the nuclear power plant continued to be operated by its regular staff and that “There has been no emission of radioactive material.”
“Radiation monitoring systems at the site are fully functional,” the agency said.
However, the director general of the IAEA, Rafael Mario Grossi, indicated that it has not yet been possible to gain access to the entire plant and that “the situation continues to present challenges”.
“I am extremely concerned about the situation at the Zaporizhia NPP and what happened there overnight ”, Grossi said in a statement.
“Firing projectiles in the area of a nuclear power plant violates the fundamental principle that the physical integrity of nuclear facilities must be kept safe at all times”, added.
What is Russia seeking by taking the control of the nuclear power plant?
Experts affirm that attacking a nuclear plant is unprecedented and that the situation remains very dangerous.
Dr. Graham Allison, a nuclear safety expert at the University of Harvard, told the BBC that the “worst case scenario” at a plant like Zaporizhia would be if a fire causes a meltdown and triggers a release of radioactivity that would contaminate the surrounding area for years.
But the expert believes that, rather than a direct attack on the nuclear power plant, it is more likely that the Russian forces were trying to “cut off the electricity supply in the surrounding area”.
Professor Claire Corkhill, an expert in nuclear materials from the University of Sheffield, England, also believes that Russia’s intention was to disconnect electricity.
“If you want to target the energy supply (of Ukraine), you attack a building near the power plant and force the operators to shut down the plant,” he told the BBC.
But the expert adds that the situation is still risky. Because if the electricity supply from the plant is damaged, “we could be seeing a scenario similar to what happened in Fukushima in 1995, where a loss of power led to a loss of cooling, which caused the meltdown of three of its nuclear reactors”.
As reported by the plant operators, at the time of the attack only one of the plant’s six reactor units, Unit 4, was operating at 60% of its power.
Of the other five reactors, one was shut down for maintenance, two were shut down in a controlled manner and two are maintained “in standby” in low power mode a.
A few days ago the Russian army also took control of the extinct nuclear plant of Chernobyl, to some 100 km north of Kiev, which was the site of the worst nuclear disaster in history in 976.
How dangerous was the attack on Zaporizhia?
As the experts explain, the Zaporizhia is different and safer than Chernobyl.
The six reactors in Zaporizhia, unlike Chernobyl, are pressurized water reactors (PWR) and have containment structures around to stop any radiation release.
Mark Wenman, from Imperial College London, told the BBC that these steel-reinforced concrete structures can “withstand external events, both natural and weather-induced. man, like a plane crash or explosions”.
The Zaporizhia plant also does not contain graphite in its reactor. At Chernobyl, the graphite caused a significant fire and was the source of the radiation plume that traveled across Europe.
In addition to the PWR reactors as well have built-in fire protection systems.
“Obviously not it’s a good idea if you start firing massive missiles at the reactors,” he told The Guardian Tony Irwin, Honorary Associate Professor at the Australian National University and former manager of the OPAL reactor, Australia’s only nuclear reactor.
“But the PWR is a much safer type of reactor, because it is a two-circuit design reactor”.
They are separate water circuits to cool the reactor and produce steam and they also have emergency core cooling systems and multiple injection systems to prevent the core from melting, he said.
Therefore, added the expert, the possibilities of explosion, nuclear fusion or radioactive release are low.
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