LLAW’s ‘All Things Nuclear’ #549 (02/23/2024)
LLAW’s ‘All Things Nuclear’ #549 (02/23/2024)
“End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends Humanity”
Satellite imagery from July shows the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and it's six uranium-fueled reactors, currently in a cold shutdown. (Maxar)
LLAW’s COMMENTS, Friday (02/23/2024)
This is a much more comprehensive report from NBC and Yahoo on the most recent Russian military attack on the huge nuclear power plant (6 nuclear reactors) in Ukraine. Diesel generators are in use to control the nuclear plant, but the plant is in serious trouble because the incoming power lines are down due to Russian military shelling. It is even more serious than I thought in my recent Post concerning this horrible situation, threatening to put all of Ukraine and other European countries in uninhabitable situations for hundreds of years.
This potential disaster could make the Chernobyl nuclear accident (the worst in nuclear power history in the spring of 1986), look like little more than a local inconvenience. The surrounding city of Pripyat, other communities and rural areas still remain uninhabitable.
And the nuclear industry still says nuclear power is safe, cheap, and clean? War is just one of the thousands of reasons 'All Things Nuclear’ are the most dangerous products on planet Earth. ~llaw
Europe’s largest nuclear plant is ‘extremely volatile,’ watchdog warns
Richard Engel and Charlotte Gardiner and Gabe Joselow
Thu, February 22, 2024 at 12:32 PM PST·6 min read
KYIV — Sitting on the front line of the war between Russia and Ukraine, Europe’s largest nuclear power plant is near the brink of a disaster that could imperil the Continent, according to international monitors and Ukrainian officials.
The situation is “extremely volatile,” said Rafael Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which closely monitors the Zaporizhzhia facility in the southeast Ukrainian town of Enerhodar. Ukraine’s national energy company and former employees at the plant are also sounding the alarm.
“It is the most dangerous situation that we have,” Grossi told NBC News in an interview last week. “It’s my job not to sow panic, but at the same time I have to tell the truth about what is happening.”
There was growing international alarm when the site was shelled in the months after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine two years ago this Saturday, Feb. 24. And Ukrainian officials have also warned about staffing levels and general maintenance of the plant, which became operational in 1984.
Both sides have since blamed the other for attacks in the vicinity of the complex, which Russian forces seized shortly after the start of the war and is almost twice the size of Ukraine’s Chernobyl plant, the site of the deadly 1986 disaster widely considered the worst nuclear accident on record.
The atomic energy agency has repeatedly warned about the dangers of a direct attack on the site, although it has noted there has been no shelling of the facility since May.
However, Russian forces remain in control of the plant, which is right on the eastern bank of the Dnieper River, and all the territory around it, including the company town of Enerhodar. Ukrainian forces have maintained control of the river’s other bank.
As the focus of the fighting has shifted farther north, another concern is the frequent power outages at the plant, where eight blackouts have been reported since the start of the war, the most recent in December, according to both the IAEA and Energoatom, Ukraine’s national energy company.
“When you have a blackout, lack of external power supply at a nuclear power plant, the cooling function of the reactors is lost, and you could have a meltdown,” Grossi said.
He added that the situation could be compared to 2011’s disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan, when three reactors melted down in an accident caused by a huge tsunami that battered the country’s eastern coast.
Zaporizhzhia is different because the plant’s six Soviet-era reactors were put into semi-shutdown to stop the nuclear fission reaction and generation of heat and pressure shortly after the start of the war. As a result, they are in a colder state than those in Fukushima and therefore less volatile.
Powering the plant has nonetheless become increasingly difficult because three of the four lines supplying the complex have been destroyed and the fourth is faulty, according to Petro Kotin, the CEO of Energoatom, which ran the facility before it was taken by Russian forces.
For now, the plant is relying on 20 backup diesel generators to keep the reactors operating safely, said Kotin, who is still in contact with a number of Ukrainian workers at the plant.
The destruction of the Kakhovka dam farther up the Dnieper River has also proved problematic for operators at the plant. Water from the dam’s reservoir had been used to cool the reactors, which now could overheat and melt down if turned on.
New wells are being drilled at the plant to make up for the supply of cooling water lost by the dam’s collapse, according to the IAEA.
Another serious point of concern is the lack of qualified staff to oversee safety under the plant’s current operators, a subsidiary of the Russian state nuclear company, Rosatom.
Before the war, about 11,000 employees worked at the plant, many of whom fled as Russian forces advanced. Now there is just a skeleton crew of about 4,000, according to Energoatom, which like Kotin still receives information from both current and former staff members.
Kotin said the Ukrainian staff who stayed behind were forced “under pressure and even under torture” to sign contracts with Rosatom.
NBC News has asked Rosatom for comment on power supply and the staffing issues at the plant.
After the plant fell into Russian hands, Serhii Romanyuk said he reluctantly continued to work there as a deputy head of nuclear safety, which meant he was responsible for the safe storage of new and used nuclear fuel.
But in September 2022, he said he was called into the office of the main engineer and was arrested by representatives of the Federal Security Service (FSB) — the domestic intelligence service that succeeded the Soviet-era KGB.
Romanyuk said they wanted to know if he had a weapon, so they escorted him back to his apartment in Enerhodar to conduct a search.
“They put a hot iron on my chest, choked me, they put a bag on my head so I couldn’t breathe,” he said. “All of that was followed by a beating.”
Although they did not find a weapon, he said they took him to a police cell where he was held in a small, windowless room, crammed with people.
The interrogations and the beatings continued, but this time he said they were searching for information about other members of the staff who were pro-Ukrainian.
“They were trying to convince me to collaborate with them, but it wasn’t about working at the nuclear plant,” he said. “They were interested in some other field of collaboration.”
After more than a month in captivity, he said was released after he refused to cooperate.
Now living in Kyiv, Romanyuk said he feared for the plant because of the poor quality of the remaining staff and the degradation of equipment. On the few occasions he has received information about the facility, he said it appeared that “nothing is done there in terms of maintenance.”
Allegations of abuse against Ukrainian workers have been widespread since Russia took over the plant. A recent investigation by the Ukrainian human rights organization Truth Hounds featured testimony from several people who also alleged similar treatment. It said that Ukrainians on site were targeted for suspicion of working with Ukrainian forces, cooperating with the country’s intelligence services or of having anti-Russian views.
NBC News has asked the FSB and Rosatom for comment about the allegations that workers at the plant have been tortured.
Kotin, the Energoatom CEO, warns that the staffing issue is affecting the overall maintenance of the plant, further increasing the chance of something going wrong and that this is getting worse because of the degradation of the site.
“You can get to the point when any small event somewhere will bring just a cumulative effect,” he said. “After that, you will have this disaster.”
Richard Engel and Charlotte Gardiner reported from Kyiv, and Gabe Joselow from London.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
Up next
Ukraine’s Zaphorizhzhia nuclear plant loses connection to last backup power line
Arpan Rai
Wed, February 21, 2024 at 10:26 PM PST·3 min read
Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has lost connection to its last external power backup line, UN’s nuclear agency chief Rafael Grossi said on Wednesday.
The loss of the last power backup to keep the nuclear facility running is “once again underlining the fragile nuclear safety and security situation at the site”, the International Atomic Energy Agency director general said.
He said IAEA officials present at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which sits in Russia-occupied territory, were informed that the 330 kilovolt (kV) power line was disconnected at 2.04pm local time on Tuesday.
A team of experts present at the site were told the disconnection occurred “due to a problem which occurred on the other side of the Dnipro river, some 13.5km away from the 330 kV switchyard, which supplies back-up power to the site”.
“The cause of the disconnection was not immediately known, the ZNPP said, adding it had been informed by the Ukrainian grid operator that work on the line was under way,” the statement said.
Ukraine's Zaporizhzhya NPP has lost connection to its last back-up external power line & is receiving electricity it needs from its only 750 kV line, again underlining fragile nuclear safety & security situation at the site, DG @RafaelMGrossi said today. https://t.co/7unyHB01xC pic.twitter.com/v5ZGRPradx
— IAEA - International Atomic Energy Agency ⚛️ (@iaeaorg) February 21, 2024
Before Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2024, the plant had four 750kV lines and six 330kV lines available to keep the nuclear facility running.
There are no longer backup options for off-site power.
Any disconnection of power or damage to the electricity lines to Zaporizhzhia can threaten the highly reactive reactors and its other essential functions which need electricity to cool them down, even when all reactor units have been shut down.
“The ZNPP is still receiving the electricity it needs from its only 750 kV line, but the loss of the 330 kV line means the plant currently has no back-up options available for off-site power,” the IAEA said.
Mr Grossi said the “extremely vulnerable off-site power situation continues to pose significant safety and security challenges for this major nuclear facility”.
“Even though the main power line remains in operation, the lack of back-up power demonstrates that the nuclear safety and security situation at the plant remains precarious,” he said.
The ZNPP has suffered complete loss of off-site power since August 2022 on at least eight events, relying temporarily on emergency diesel generators.
Fears over the “fragile” security situation at one of the world’s biggest atomic power plants has been a feature throughout Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
The IAEA has expressed alarm about the facility amid fears of a potential nuclear catastrophe. The plant has repeatedly been caught in the crossfire since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February in 2022, and seized the facility within days of their military offensive.
Of particular concern is the Russian decision to block access for Ukrainian staff employed by Kyiv’s national operator, who refused to sign contracts with the Russian operator at the site.
The staff working at the plant now are former Energoatom workers who adopted Russian citizenship and signed new contracts with Russia’s operator at the site.
ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO “LLAW’S ALL THINGS NUCLEAR” RELATED MEDIA:
There are 6 categories (including a bonus category at the end for news about the Yellowstone caldera and other volcanic and caldera activity that also play an important role in humanity’s lives) as do ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links to the most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none (especially so with the Yellowstone Caldera). The Categories are listed below in their usual order:
All Things Nuclear
Nuclear Power
Nuclear War
Nuclear Power Emergencies
Nuclear War Threats
Yellowstone Caldera (There is one Yellowstone Caldera bonus story available in tonight’s Post.)
Whenever there is an underlined link to a Category media news story, if you press or click on the link provided, you no longer have to cut and paste to your web browser, since this Post’s link will take you directly to the article in your browser.
A current Digest of major nuclear media headlines with automated links is listed below by nuclear Category (per above). If a category heading does not appear, it means there was no news reported from this category today. There is one Yellowstone Caldera bonus story available tonight.
(A reminder, just in case: When linked, the access to the media story will be underlined. If there is no link to a media story of interest you can still copy and paste the headline and lead line into your browser to find the article you are seeking. Hopefully this will never happen.)
TODAY’S NUCLEAR WORLD’S NEWS (02/23/2024):
All Things Nuclear
NEWS
Putin Takes a Flight in Nuclear-Capable Bomber in a Tough Message to the West Ahead of Election
Military.com
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Putin's Big Statement After Biden's 'Nuclear War Fear' Alert; 'Nearly All Russian Nuke Forces Now…'
Hindustan Times
Russian President Vladimir announced on February 23 that nearly all of Russian nuclear forces have modernised amid fears of nuclear conflict ...
Whose declared existential risk is a bigger threat, Biden's or Trump's? - Washington Post
Washington Post
Biden points at climate change as the existential threat to humanity. Trump says it's nuclear weapons. So we asked an expert.
Nuclear Power
NEWS
Study Details Positive Economic Impact of Nuclear Industry in Southeast U.S.
American Public Power Association
“It serves as a baseline for understanding the benefits of nuclear power and its integral role in regional economic growth and the global clean energy ...
DOE inks $303M deal for advanced nuclear reactor - E&E News by POLITICO
E&E News
The Department of Energy has signed an agreement with a nuclear technology company to provide up to $303 million for designing, building and ...
Kairos Power, DOE agree on milestone approach to Hermes support - American Nuclear Society
Europe's largest nuclear plant is 'extremely volatile,' watchdog warns - Yahoo News
Yahoo News
KYIV — Sitting on the front line of the war between Russia and Ukraine, Europe's largest nuclear power plant is near the brink of a disaster that ...
Nuclear War
NEWS
Are investors prepared for *checks notes* nuclear war in space? - Financial Times
Financial Times
The explosion test, called Starfish Prime, was a high-altitude nuclear test conducted as a joint effort of the Atomic Energy Commission and the ...
Ukraine-Russia war latest: Putin flies on supersonic nuclear bomber - Sky News
Sky News
Putin has flown on a supersonic nuclear bomber today - a version of what the USSR would have deployed in the event of a nuclear war.
Putin's Big Statement After Biden's 'Nuclear War Fear' Alert; 'Nearly All Russian Nuke Forces Now…'
YouTube
Russian President Vladimir announced on February 23 that nearly all of Russian nuclear forces have modernised amid fears of nuclear conflict ...
Nuclear Power Emergencies
NEWS
NRC Issues Event Notification for Peach Bottom Nuclear Plant, Pa. - Energy Central
Energy Central
... emergency notification per 10 CFR 50.72(b)(3)(v). "There was no impact on the health and safety of the public or plant personnel. "The NRC ...
China science, technology news summary -- Feb. 23 - Xinhua
Xinhua
The Zhangzhou nuclear power project is designed to consist of six nuclear ... emergency management systems and capabilities. Multiple new models of ...
Nuclear War Threats
NEWS
Don't fear the space nuke. The Ukraine war remains the true Russian threat to the West
The Telegraph
Don't fear the space nuke. The Ukraine war remains the true Russian threat to the West. The 'God of War' is no heavenly entity. David Axe 23 ...
Russia warns it could 'accidentally' start a nuclear war as 'impotent' western leaders ... - MSN
MSN
' It comes just days after the ex-president threatened Russia could nuke the UK, US, Ukraine and its backers if Russia is forced to concede occupied ...
Putin says he STILL wants Biden as president and doesn't blame him for calling a 'crazy ...
Daily Mail
At the same time, Moscow is ramping up threats of nuclear attack amid ... nuclear war with the West to deliver nuclear weapons at long distances.
Yellowstone Caldera
NEWS
Sheveluch volcano (Central Kamchatka, Russia) - Smithsonian / USGS Weekly Volcanic ...
Volcano Discovery
... caldera and picturesque villages. Discover its fascinating natural and cultural history on a relaxed walking study tour with us. Yellowstone quakes.