“The situation is close to Fukushima, and there is no help from the world,” reported one of the engineers at the Zaporizhzhya NPP (BBC News in Ukrainian). The interview was also partly published in Russian: “What the Russian army is doing here is nuclear terrorism.”
The representatives of the Wagner Group, a Russian paramilitary organization known for terrorist acts, already appeared at the nuclear plant, reported Ukrainian soldiers.
Those who understand what is happening at the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant are very scared, said Olena Pareniuk, a radiobiologist and a senior researcher at the Institute of Safety Problems of the nuclear power plant of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.
Nuclear terrorism treats around the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant reached a new level and geography. European leaders should be wary of “possible incidents” at nuclear power plants also in their countries, said Russia’s former President Dmitry Medvedev. “Don’t forget that there are nuclear sites in the European Union, too. And incidents are possible there as well.”
Tobias Ellwood, Member of the UK Parliament, Chair of the House of Commons Defence Select Committee, stated, “ANY deliberate damage causing potential radiation leak to a Ukrainian nuclear reactor would be a breach of NATO’s Article 5.”
The Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant is experiencing serious risks since March 2022. There is confirmed information about the mining of the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant units by Russian troops. 500 Russian soldiers were at the plant, reports BBC.
Ukraine’s state energy company Energoatom has said the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power complex has been shelled four times on 11 August, the date that the UN Security Council holds an emergency meeting about this issue. ” Five strikes were recorded in the area of the station commandant’s office, which is located next to the welding area and the storage of radiation sources,” the report reads.
“What is happening now around the Zaporizhzhia NPP is one of the biggest crimes of the terrorist state. Today, more arrivals of Russian shells were recorded on the NPP premises in the immediate vicinity of its facilities. Russia has once again gone through the floor in the world history of terrorism: no one else has used a nuclear plant so obviously to threaten the whole world and to put forward certain conditions,” President Zelensky stressed.
The EU and 42 countries have called on Russia to immediately withdraw its military forces from the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant and all of Ukraine.
UN Secretary General António Guterres has stated about the need to withdraw military personnel and equipment from the territory of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. “Regrettably, instead of de-escalation, over the past several days there have been reports of further deeply worrying incidents that could, if they continue, lead to disaster. I am calling for all military activities in the immediate vicinity of the plant to cease immediately and not to target its facilities or surroundings. I urge the withdrawal of any military personnel and equipment from the plant and the avoidance of any further deployment of forces or equipment to the site. The facility must not be used as part of any military operation. Instead, urgent agreement is needed at a technical level on a safe perimeter of demilitarization to ensure the safety of the area.”
The U.S. supports “Ukrainian calls for a demilitarized zone around the nuclear power plant,” said the State Department’s spokesperson. “We continue to call on Russia to cease all military operations at or near Ukrainian nuclear facilities and return full control to Ukraine (of the ZNPP – ed.),” the spokesman added.
Dmytro Humeniuk, an expert at the State Scientific and Technical Center for Nuclear and Radiation Safety of Ukraine, explained for Deutsche Welle that the disastrous consequences, depending on the situation, can be one Fukushima, six Fukushimas, or several Chernobyls.
The report “Here’s just how close the war in Ukraine has come to Europe’s largest nuclear plant” from NPR (National Public Media) presents analysis of satellite imagery and posts on Twitter, Telegram, and YouTube over the past month. The publication shows how an escalating conflict at the plant is drawing ever closer to critical safety systems and radioactive materials, ratcheting up the chance of a nuclear disaster.
Is the recent situation a preparation to the worse events? During the war, it is hard to identify what information is accurate and what isn’t. There are rumours of escalation on a Russian-speaking whistleblower Telegram channel “SVR General” that already became popular with 295305 subscribers. SVR abbreviation in Russian means Foreign Intelligence Service. Russian authorities from Roskomnadzor sent documents to block this Telegram channel but failed. The recent publication should not be ignored, considering the possible consequences of a nuclear disaster. The full text says following:
“Russian President Vladimir Putin not only did not give up the option of using nuclear weapons in the war with Ukraine but also gave direct orders to prepare such options. We have already been told many times that Putin usually gives orders to prepare several options for the implementation of a number of solutions, and after preparing all the options, he chooses the one he likes best, just before the implementation of this plan.
Thus, there is an active preparation for one of the scenarios of the conflict, when Putin can implement the possibility of using tactical nuclear weapons. The recent shelling of the Zaporizhzhia NPP in Energodar by Russian troops is part of the implementation of this scenario. By order of the command of the Russian Armed Forces, the Zaporizhzhya NPP was mined, including one of the plant’s power units. If this plan is implemented, part of the structures at the plant will be blown up, and the power unit will be damaged. Putin will accuse the leadership of Ukraine of nuclear terrorism, holding Ukraine responsible for the explosions and equating “nuclear terrorism” with the use of nuclear weapons by Ukraine by ordering the use of tactical nuclear weapons as a “retaliatory” measure.
And if for the beginning of the war with Ukraine, Putin decided to abandon the formal casus belli, although the options of provocations by the Russian leadership were being prepared, in the case of the decision to use tactical nuclear weapons, the casus belli must be unambiguous. Putin has a fixed idea, which is to repeat all the mistakes made by the U.S. so that Russia will be considered a great country and he will be considered a great ruler.
Putin believes that it is the demonstration of the unpunished use of nuclear weapons in an armed conflict that will force the West to recognize his (Putin’s) power and make the whole world reckon with him and go along with his terms. This, of course, is an idiotic and deadly delusion, especially for Russia, but it is the reality for a seriously ill or “too healthy” Russian president. Fighting Putin’s illusions, as well as trying to convince him of anything, is useless; the only thing he understands exactly is the “language of force,” and the sooner the West understands this, the better the chances will be that Putin will not dare to use nuclear weapons.”
Roman Sheremeta, Associate Professor of Economics at Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University, said that Russia would not be able to win the war. At the same time, he also suggested that to “save face,” they could blow up one of the Ukrainian nuclear power plants, blame it on Ukrainians, and then “gracefully” withdraw Russian troops with a legitimate excuse to save their lives from radiation.
Energoatom, Ukraine’s nuclear power plant operator, described possible scenarios of aftermath in case of explosions on Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Up to 30,000 km² would be unlivable & up to 2 million km² would be contaminated. Turkey and the Crimea are under direct threat, up to 2 million people might have to be evacuated, reports Anton Gerashchenko, Advisor to the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine.
“Russia and Ukraine are at war outside the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant. What is the threat of shelling Europe’s largest nuclear power plant? “A second Chernobyl awaits us” – is this an exaggeration or not?” asked journalists of “Meduza.” Radiochemist Boris Zhuykov evaluated various crisis scenarios at the Zaporizhzhia NPP for the report from “Meduza.” An accident with iodine-131 release is highly possible. No Russian military or even Rosatom specialists should interfere in the nuclear power plant work. Zhuykov suggests a demilitarization zone around the station.
Calls for a visit by the International Atomic Energy Agency have intensified amid mounting global concern over the possibility of an accident, reports The New York Times. “We will use all diplomatic channels available to us in order to bring the I.A.E.A. and the U.N. closer to the implementation of this mission. We really need this visit to take place urgently,” said the representative of Energoatom to the agency’s headquarters in Vienna, Yevhen Tsymbaliuk. French Senator Guillaume Gontard, member of the Senate Defense Committee, also asks for a special security mission to be sent to the site to prevent a disaster.
Oleg Korikov, Acting Chairman of the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine, says: “This is the first time in history that a nuclear power plant has been captured by terrorists”.
Greenpeace warns of twin nuclear crises in Ukraine from Chernobyl to Russian military control of Zaporizhzhia plant. “Nuclear plants are extremely vulnerable to external attack in the context of a war zone,” explains Shaun Burnie, senior nuclear specialist, who says something as simple as the loss of power could unleash “massive releases of radioactivity” at rates worse than the Chernobyl disaster.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres condemned an attack on a nuclear power station in southern Ukraine. “Any attack to nuclear plants is…suicidal,” the UN chief said, adding that he hoped that the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) would be able to access the plant for inspection. Energoatom said earlier that Russian shelling damaged three radiation monitors around the Zaporizhzhia storage facility for spent nuclear fuels, in which one worker was injured.
The shelling prompted IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi to warn that the way in which Zaporizhzhia was being run coupled with the fighting around it posed “the very real risk of a nuclear disaster”. IAEA reports that the shelling at the ZNPP “breached virtually all the seven indispensable nuclear safety and security pillars that the Director General outlined at the beginning of the conflict, including those related to a nuclear power plant’s physical integrity, functioning safety and security systems, staff and external power supplies.”
IAEA Director General Grossi reiterated his grave concern about the situation at the ZNPP and that any military action jeopardizing nuclear safety and security must stop. He again stressed the need for an IAEA expert mission to go to the plant as soon as possible to help stabilise the nuclear safety and security situation.
The G7 Foreign Ministers of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States of America, and the High Representative of the European Union, have called on Russia to immediately return full control of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant to the Ukrainian authorities. The USA addressed nuclear safety in Ukraine in White House Daily Briefing also calling Russia to return full control to Ukraine.
“Deeply concerned by the events ongoing in Ukraine, the European Nuclear Society joins the International Atomic Energy Agency in condemning once again the attacks on the Zaporizhzya nuclear power plant, demanding an end to further hostilities at any nuclear energy facility, and decrying any military action, whether deliberate or careless, which reduces the safety of nuclear facilities in Ukraine, nuclear energy workers or IAEA officials in Ukraine.”
Dnistrovska pumped storage power plant of Ukrhydroenergo managed to temporarily replace the block of Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which was switched off on August 5 due to damage to the power line by shelling by the Russian military, and avoid serious problems in the energy system, General Director of Ukrhydroenergo Ihor Syrota said (Interfax).
Guardian offers Energoatom president Petro Kotin’s comments about Russian forces’ plans to reorient the plant’s electricity production to connect to Crimea. “To do this, you must first damage the power lines of the plant connected to the Ukrainian energy system. From August 7 to 9, the Russians have already damaged three power lines. At the moment, the plant is operating with only one production line, which is an extremely dangerous way of working.” Petro Kotin warns that the events at the Zaporizhzhya NPP are now approaching the pre-accident situation at the Japanese Fukushima-1 in 2011.
“At the ZNPP, we are already very close to this first stage of Fukushima-1 because there is only one line. As soon as it is turned off, the station will switch to diesel, and after that, everything will depend on the reliability of their work and the sufficiency of the fuel that is there for diesels at the ZNPP,” stated Kotin.
Residents report that several high-voltage transmission lines from the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant to the occupied Crimea were damaged at night recently.
The Russian forces have declared they are ready to blow up mined Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. The press service of Energoatom National Nuclear Energy Generating Company said this on Telegram, Ukrinform reports. “The Russians do not hide their plans and are openly blackmailing the whole world, declaring that they have mined the Zaporizhzhia NPP and that they are ready to blow it up,” the report reads.
Some experts evaluated the probability of an explosion at the Zaporizhzhia NPP and its consequences long ago. The possible risks include black-out in Ukraine, including the Crimea, some parts of Russia, and Eastern Europe. Significant damage is predicted to the ecology of the Black Sea and food production in the region.
New York City Emergency Management shared important steps for New Yorkers to follow if a nuclear attack occurs.
Experts from Moldova, the country to the west of Ukraine, already provide instructions to its residents in the case of a nuclear emergency in Zaporizhzhia NPP, located as far as 740 km.
Dmitry Orlov, the mayor of Energodar, the hometown of the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, said that in the pre-occupation period, there were 53 thousand residents, half of whom had already left.
The Ukrainian city council of Zaporizhia has denied rumors of preparations for a mass evacuation of local residents. At the same time, an information campaign was launched to raise awareness of the action protocol for the population in case of emergencies, including during evacuation. However, for now, these are only preventive measures.
The State Scientific and Technical Center for Nuclear and Radiation Safety published the Main Principles for Iodine Deficiency Prevention following the significant activation of Russian troops near the Zaporizhzhya NPP in English and Ukrainian (please change your language on the Center’s website). Additional emergency recommendations for Ukrainians in Ukrainian language are also available here and here.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also delivered a speech at the Conference of Defense Ministers of Northern European Countries and Ukraine. He said: “Russia has turned the nuclear plant into a battlefield. When the occupiers came to the Zaporizhzhia NPP, their tanks fired at it. Direct fire at the plant! Placing military equipment on the territory of the plant and even disposing of ammunition there, the Russian troops surely know that they are putting the whole of Europe at risk of a nuclear disaster.”
For more updates on the radiation situation and nuclear risks during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, please see the website of the National Nuclear Energy Generating Company «Energoatom».