An attack by Russian forces to try to take over the Zaporijia nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe, started a fire at the unit in the early hours of Friday (4), late Thursday night in Brazil.
According to Russian news agency RIA-Novosti, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitro Kuleba asked for the attack to be stopped at the risk of creating an explosion potentially ten times greater than that of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which took place in Ukraine earlier this year. Soviet Union in 1986.
The plant’s management told the agency that there was no immediate risk of nuclear contamination. Ukraine’s Emergency Service later reported that radiation and fire conditions at the facility were “within normal limits”.
The reactor that exploded 35 years ago had seven times less energy production capacity than the combined six at the plant under attack, but that doesn’t necessarily serve to make a comparison of potential in the event of a disaster.
Initial information is that the fire would have started in a building outside the plant.
Images of security systems still do not allow establishing whether the fire visible on screen occurs in a sensitive point, capable of releasing radiation or, worse, leading to the melting or explosion of the core of one of its reactors.
One thing is for sure, however: nuclear facilities do not match firefights, and the images clearly show traces of large-caliber weapons fired at the facility. And a video released by Moscow’s Novaia Gazeta newspaper shows illuminators being thrown at the plant — suggesting an attack by soldiers.
According to the same RIA-Novosti, the director of the plant said that there are no signs of an increase in radiation at the site so far.
The Russians, entering their ninth day of invasion of Ukraine, had been besieging Zaporijia for two days. The mayor of the Ukrainian city that houses the plant, Energodar, had said late Thursday afternoon that there was a large concentration of soldiers from Moscow heading to the region.
Since Tuesday (1st), plant employees and residents had closed off access to the site to Russian armored vehicles, which turned around. It is not the first nuclear power plant to be involved in combat in this war.
On the second day of the operation, last Friday (25), the Russians began to fight in the Chernobyl region and took the place over the weekend. There, the plant continues to operate to maintain control over the reactor that exploded in 1986 under a lead sarcophagus, which holds radioactive emissions.
According to Russian military experts, the invaders feared that saboteurs would act to attack the invaders or make them guilty of a possible radioactive leak. In the end, only the agitation of the contaminated soil led to a temporary increase in radiation levels at the site.
Now it’s different. Zaporijia, built between 1985 and 1989, is the largest complex of its kind in Europe. It has six VVER-type reactors, models much safer than the RMBK used in Chernobyl. But it’s not designed to take shots or bombs.
About 25% of Ukrainian power is supplied by the plant, which also makes it a central asset for any invading or defending force.
Despite Kuleba’s alarmist tone, it is not yet possible to determine whether the fire seen in images actually puts the plant at risk of explosion. It even theoretically should be shut down as soon as such an incident occurs.
According to his management, he told RIA-Novosti, the fire took place in a training building, away from the nuclear risk area, and safety protocols were activated.
The Russian Defense Ministry had been saying in the days before the attack that it was seeking to control Ukrainian nuclear assets to avoid the risk of accidents. There are four nuclear power plants in the invaded country.
When questioned, the International Atomic Energy Agency, which had spent the day warning about the risks of war in such a sensitive region, said only that it was aware of the problem and asked Kiev for information. Its director, Argentine Rafael Grossi, had suggested that technicians from the UN-linked agency could operate the site in a neutral manner.
Shortly after the first news of the fire in Zaporijia, US President Joe Biden spoke with Volodymyr Zelensky to, according to a White House statement, receive updates on the situation at the plant. After the attack, the Ukrainian accused Russia of wanting to “repeat” Chernobyl and resorting to “nuclear terror”.
Ukrainian collective memory of Chernobyl is another point. The disaster showed many aspects of the Soviet Union’s administrative degradation, which would end five years later. This is well shown in the award-winning TV series “Chernobyl”.
Biggest civilian nuclear tragedy next to the one that occurred in Fukushima, Japan, in 2011, Chernobyl killed for Russian accounts 28 people and maybe 14 more indirectly. The UN says about 100, and anti-atomic energy activists speculate as many as 4,000 victims of the contamination. It spread like a cloud across Europe, creating international panic and forcing the Soviets to admit the extent of the problem.
