Ukraine, vulnerability of reactors

Posted: 21st February 2022

There is the possibility that Russia could—intentionally or not—strike one of Ukraine’s 15 nuclear power reactors, writes Bennett Ramberg, a former foreign affairs officer in the US State Department’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs and the author of Nuclear Power Plants as Weapons for the Enemy. Located at four different sites around the country, these reactors supply approximately half of the country’s energy needs,and attacking them would significantly hamstring a military response by Ukraine—but not without turning the reactors into radioactive mines. The radioactive debris released in an attack on one or more of the power plants could eventually settle across thousands of miles in the surrounding area, including parts of Russia itself. Even if Putin never ordered a strike on a nuclear power plant, many unplanned things happen in the fog of war. Or, as Ramberg writes, in war “[b]ad stuff happens.” Bulletin of Atomic Scientists 15th Feb 2022  https://thebulletin.org/2022/02/war-has-been-an-environmental-disaster-for-ukraine/ Of all the obvious dangers that come with war, one of the most far-reaching in the current Russia-Ukraine conflict has been woefully underappreciated. Even if commanders took pains to avoid striking Ukraine’s15 nuclear power reactors, that might not be enough to avoid a catastrophe. Project Syndicate 14th Feb 2022  https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/ukraine-nuclear-reactor-risk-by-bennett-ramberg-2022-02 The crisis in Eastern Europe could become a regional and globalhumanitarian catastrophe if war involving nuclear-armed nations erupts inUkraine. IPPNW hosted an emergency briefing on 19 February with a distinguished panel of experts to examine the terrible human cost if diplomacy fails. Topics include: – Conventional war – Possible directand indirect impacts of a conventional war in Ukraine on health, humanrights, and the environment. -Damage to nuclear power reactors – The riskof large radioactive releases from one or more of the 15 nuclear powerstations in Ukraine that are vulnerable to deliberate or accidentaldestruction or meltdowns due to loss of power through cyber attacks.-Escalation to nuclear weapons – The catastrophic regional and globalconsequences if nuclear weapons are launched intentionally or by accidentor miscalculation. IPPNW 19th Feb 2022  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aPPU2eexnE&t=27s