Zaporizhia nuclear plant: is there a risk of a meltdown accident?
How safe is the nuclear power plant
Created: 08/10/2022 05:42
Zaporizhia is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe.
The facility occupied by Russia was under fire during the Ukraine war.
Experts are worried.
Enerhodar/Munich - Volodymyr Zelenskyj believes that the attacks on the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant could trigger a nuclear catastrophe.
Are the Ukrainian president's warnings about the Ukraine war exaggerated?
After repeated shelling, the plant is damaged.
German nuclear experts are also extremely worried.
"If the Russian side seems to start playing with this situation, that's extremely worrying," said Thomas Walter Tromm from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology on the television channel phoenix.
The scientist saw a core meltdown accident as the greatest danger.
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Zaporizhia nuclear plant under fire in Ukraine war: "Extremely dangerous"
"This scenario would be extremely dangerous for Ukraine, but also for the surrounding countries, depending on the meteorological situation," Tromm continued.
A temporary shutdown of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant is also possible.
“But this is the largest facility in Europe and dominant in Ukraine.
That would hit the country very hard," said Tromm.
It is now necessary for international nuclear experts to have unimpeded access.
Only then would it be possible to get an overview and answer the question of the condition of the employees and whether they were being put under pressure by Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin.
Zaporizhia compared to Chernobyl or Fukushima: Experts weigh up
However, after the nuclear accident in Fukushima, Japan, Ukraine cooperated well in the stress tests that took place in Europe and carried out retrofits.
"The facility is very well protected against small rocket attacks," Tromm was convinced.
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Yevhenij Tsimbaliuk made a similar statement.
He is Kyiv's ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
An accident at Ukraine's Zaporizhia nuclear power plant would be unprecedented.
"What would then happen within a radius of 40 or 50 kilometers around the power plant would be absolutely incomparable with Chernobyl and Fukushima," said Zymbaljuk, according to dpa.
Zaporizhia nuclear plant: What protective measures are there?
According to nuclear experts, Zaporizhia is better protected by a separate cooling circuit and a special protective layer than the two accident sites in Chernobyl and Fukushima.
However, Zaporizhia would probably not withstand a targeted military attack.
Background: In 1986, a devastating meltdown occurred in the Ukrainian nuclear power plant Chernobyl.
In 2011, an earthquake and tsunami triggered another nuclear disaster at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi power plant.
Battles for Zaporizhia: That says the Federal Office for Radiation Protection
To the knowledge of the Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS), no radioactive radiation has so far escaped from Zaporizhia or reached Germany.
According to the BfS, all available radiological readings were "in the normal range," it explained to the
Funke
newspapers on August 9th.
"The BfS does not see any acute danger of a release of radioactive substances, but shares the concern for the long-term safe operation of the Zaporizhia nuclear plant," it said.
In Germany, the authority routinely measures natural radiation exposure.
"If the radioactivity level measured at two neighboring measuring points exceeded a certain threshold value, a message would be triggered automatically."
Possible nuclear accident in Zaporizhia: emergency measures in Germany
In the event that radioactive substances reached Germany as a result of a release in a Ukrainian nuclear power plant, "the emergency measures would probably be limited to agriculture and the marketing of agricultural products," the Federal Office said.
According to the calculations of the BfS, "it is not to be expected that further measures to protect the population would be necessary".
A Russian soldier at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant.
© ANDREY BORODULIN/AFP
Nuclear power plant accidents in general: weather influences radioactivity
The weather conditions are decisive for the spread of radioactive substances.
According to the BfS, “in the past, air masses only moved from the Ukraine to Germany on around 60 days a year – i.e. in 17 percent of the weather conditions”.
According to their own statements, the Russian occupying forces are now stationing air defense systems around the Zaporizhia facility.
In the past few days, Moscow and Kyiv have repeatedly blamed each other for attacks on the nuclear power plant.
The information cannot be verified independently.
The Zaporizhia nuclear power plant has a total of six blocks with a total capacity of 5700 megawatts.
This makes it the most powerful nuclear power plant in Europe.
According to Ukrainian sources, three blocks were still in operation before the shelling at the weekend.
(AFP/dpa/frs)