LLAW’s All Things Nuclear #579, Sunday, (03/24/2024)
LLAW’s All Things Nuclear #579, Sunday, (03/24/2024)
“End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends Humanity.”
Ukraine's Russia-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant
LLAW’s CONCERNS & COMMENTS, Sunday, (03/24/2024)
And now Russia seems to be attacking the entire power system of Ukraine, keeping the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant as the final point of ending Ukraine’s sovereignty and possibly its existence, or so it seems to me. If that happens, WWIII will begin, and part of that possibility is the U.S. congress that is refusing to aid Ukraine in their defense, and have no chance to win a war against Russia that could easily turn nuclear without even a single bomb, but by virtue of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant being used as a nuclear weapon of mass destruction (WMD).
Russia’ military is attacking the citizenry of Ukraine, and humans cannot exist in today’s world without electrical power. And, I am ashamed to say, the U.S. is politically contributing to the possible deaths of as many as 40 million people.
The following article by the Associated Press must be read to understand the immanent danger the Ukrainian people are so suddenly faced with. We must demand that our U.S. Congress provide the $60 billion that Ukraine has needed to defend itself and has waited for for so long, and had they had the financial aide, the War may not have come to this. Are we, here in America, so selfish as to not help a suffering ‘free’ nation in an dictatorial part of the world? ~llaw
Russia launches sweeping attack on Ukraine’s power sector, a sign of possible escalation
Russian attacks destroyed residential areas in Zaporizhzhia and Kherson on Friday, and widespread outages were reported after electrical stations were hit. (Mar. 22)
BY HANNA ARHIROVA AND JIM HEINTZ
Updated 4:02 AM PDT, March 23, 2024
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia unleashed one of its most devastating attacks against Ukraine’s electric sector on Friday, an aerial assault it said was retaliation for recent strikes inside Russia and which could signal an escalation of the war just days after President Vladimir Putin cemented his grip on power in a preordained election.
Many Ukrainians were plunged into darkness across several cities, at least five people were killed, and damage to the country’s largest hydroelectric plant briefly cut off power to a nuclear plant that has been a safety risk throughout the war.
Russia fired off more than 60 exploding drones and 90 missiles in what Ukrainian officials described as the most brutal attack against its energy infrastructure since the full-scale war began in early 2022.
Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, sustained the most damage, officials said, and the attack came a day after Russia had fired 31 missiles into the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been urging Western allies for weeks to provide it with additional air-defense systems and ammunition, a period in which $60 billion in U.S. aid has been held up by divisions in Congress.
“With Russian missiles, there are no delays, like with aid packages to our state,” Zelenskyy said. “It is important to understand the cost of delays and postponed decisions.”
Russia’s defense ministry called Friday attacks “strikes of retribution.” Ukraine has increased shelling of Russia’s Belgorod region along its northeast border and has launched drone strikes targeting Russian oil refineries and other energy facilities.
Ukraine’s latest strike inside Russia on Friday killed one and injured at least three, according to local officials.
Putin has described Ukrainian attacks on Belgorod and other regions as an effort to frighten residents and derail the highly orchestrated election that ended Sunday. And he vowed to strike back.
The day after he declared victory, Putin said Russia would seek to create a buffer zone inside eastern Ukraine to help protect against long-range strikes and cross-border raids.
Russia has made progress on the battlefield in recent months against exhausted Ukrainian troops struggling with a shortage of manpower and ammunition along the front line that stretches over 1,000 kilometers (620 miles).
When Putin invaded in 2022, he called it a “special military operation,” and his officials have mostly eschewed the word “war.” But in a change of rhetoric Friday that may herald a new escalation, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a Russian newspaper that “when the collective West became a participant in this on the side of Ukraine, for us it already became a war.”
In the winter of 2022-23, Russia targeted Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, causing frequent blackouts across the country. Many in Ukraine and the West expected that Russia might repeat this strategy this winter, but Russia instead focused its strikes on Ukraine’s defense industries.
While launching the strikes, Russia has combined sophisticated ballistic and cruise missiles with waves of cheap Iranian-made Shahed drones in a bid to oversaturate and weaken Ukrainian air defenses.
Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, head of the national utility Ukrenergo, described Friday’s barrage as the largest assault on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure since the full-scale war began.
“This attack was especially dangerous because the adversary combined different means of attack, kamikaze drones, ballistic and cruise missiles,” he said.
Kudrytskyi said that Russia “tried to destroy every significant energy object powering the city of Kharkiv,” leaving at least 700,000 without electricity. He estimated that several hundred thousand customers in other regions were also left without power.
Oleksiy Kuleba, deputy head of Zelenskyy’s office, said that 31 people were injured in the strikes, that also left 200,000 people without constant access to electricity in the Odesa region. He said that power supplies for most of 400 000 customers in Dnipropetrovsk region was restored.
The huge Dnipro hydroelectric power plant, Ukraine’s largest, halted operation after sustaining at least six missile hits that caused massive damage. Ihor Syrota, the head of Ukrhidroenergo company overseeing the country’s hydroelectric plants, said it lost about a third of its generation capacity in a “significant loss for the Ukrainian energy system.”
Syrota said that the extent of damage to the plant remained unclear because its equipment has been buried under concrete and metal debris from the blasts, noting that the repairs will be a “long process.”
The strikes sparked a fire at the Dnipro plant, which supplies electricity to the nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia, the largest in Europe. Power to the nuclear plant was lost for several hours before it was restored, International Atomic Energy Agency head Rafael Grossi said early Friday. The Zaporizhzhia plant has been occupied by Russian troops since early days of the invasion, and fighting around it has raised the risk of a nuclear accident.
The dam at the hydroelectric station was not in danger of breaching, the country’s hydroelectric authority said. A dam breach could not only disrupt supplies to the nuclear plant but could potentially cause severe flooding similar to what occurred last year when a major dam at Kakhovka further down the Dnieper River collapsed.
___
Heintz reported from Tallinn, Estonia.
Arhirova is an Associated Press reporter covering Ukraine. She is based in Kyiv.
ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO “LLAW’S ALL THINGS NUCLEAR” RELATED MEDIA:
There are 6 categories, including a bonus non-nuclear category for news about the Yellowstone caldera and other volcanic and caldera activity around the world that play an important role in humanity’s lives, as do ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links in each category about 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 Power Emergencies
Nuclear War
Nuclear War Threats
Yellowstone Caldera (Note: 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 (in the above listed order). If a Category heading does not appear in the daily news Digest, it means there was no news reported from this Category today. Generally, the three best articles in each Category from around the nuclear world(s) are Posted. Occasionally, if a Post is important enough, it may be listed in multiple Categories.
TODAY’S NUCLEAR WORLD’S NEWS, Sunday, (03/25/2024):
All Things Nuclear
NEWS
Book Review: 'Nuclear War,' by Annie Jacobsen; 'Countdown,' by Sarah Scoles
The New York Times
When the author Tommy Orange received an impassioned email from a teacher in the Bronx, he dropped everything to visit the students who inspired it. A ...
Daily Kos
Putin seems to be very fond of threatening to use nuclear weapons every time he gets his ego dinged by every consequence of his actions.
What would happen to Washington, DC if attacked by a nuclear bomb? - New York Post
New York Post
... nuclear weapon is about to burn it all down. Advertisement. The science behind the bomb is profound. Embedded in the thermonuclear flash of light ...
Nuclear Power
NEWS
The West's Nuclear Power Revival Could Be Slower Than Hoped - Energy Central
Energy Central
-- At the COP28 climate summit at the end of last year, the United States and 21 other countries pledged to triple nuclear energy capacities by 2050.
Russia launches sweeping attack on Ukraine's power sector, a sign of possible escalation
AP News
... electricity to the nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia, the largest in Europe. Power to the nuclear plant was lost for several hours before it was ...
It took 30 years, but world's largest artificial reef built near San Diego nuclear power plant is ...
San Diego Union-Tribune
Scientists knew early on that the nuclear power plant's cooling system would stir up the ocean and degrade nearby kelp beds. They also knew it would ...
Nuclear Power Emergencies
NEWS
DEMA to test emergency sirens for New Jersey nuclear stations April 2 - Delaware Online
Delaware Online
The Hope Creek nuclear reactor cooling tower. The reactors at Salem 1 and 2 draw. There are 37 sirens in Delaware located within a 10-mile radius ...
Nuclear War
NEWS
What would happen to Washington, DC if attacked by a nuclear bomb? - New York Post
New York Post
A new book "Nuclear War: A Scenario," describes the death and destruction around a fictional nuclear attack on Washington, DC.
Book Review: 'Nuclear War,' by Annie Jacobsen; 'Countdown,' by Sarah Scoles
The New York Times
In “Nuclear War” and “Countdown,” Annie Jacobsen and Sarah Scoles talk to the people whose job it is to prepare for atomic conflict.
Skipjack-Class: How the U.S. Navy Became a Nuclear Attack Submarine Superpower
The National Interest
... warfare. These submarines not only marked the U.S. Navy's transition into modern nuclear-powered attack submarines but also demonstrated a forward ...
Nuclear War Threats
NEWS
What would happen to Washington, DC if attacked by a nuclear bomb? - New York Post
New York Post
... threats target Pennsylvania library over Drag ... War" which details a fictitious nuclear attack on Washington, DC. Getty Images ... nuclear war is as ...
Targeting Marwan Issa didn't break the law; it enforced it - The Jerusalem Post
The Jerusalem Post
An example of such a threat would be a direct Iranian attack on Israel that escalates into an unconventional war. Although Iran is pre-nuclear, any ...
Yellowstone Caldera
NEWS
How early humans survived the eruption of Toba supervolcano - Earth.com
Earth.com
Another example is the Yellowstone Caldera, located in the United States. It has experienced three supereruptions over the past 2.1 million years ...