While a truce is being announced to open humanitarian corridors, what is worrying in these hours is the advance towards a second nuclear power plant after the one in Zaporizhzhia. But what risks are there with an attack on a Ukrainian nuclear power plant?
In Zaporizhzhia no reactor was hit, but the news of a possible explosion of that nuclear power plant yesterday went around the world and caused all sorts of alarms. We talked about it here with Alessandro Dodaro, Director of the Fusion and Technologies Department for ENEA Nuclear Safety, who reassured us.
Therefore, neither the 6 reactors nor the support and safety infrastructures necessary for the correct operation of the reactors themselves and for the management of potential accidents have been affected. The plant, therefore, is intact, and is in normal operating conditions, without any of its functions having been compromised, he explained.
In fact, according to reports from the New York Times, which analyzed the images of the fire, the fire triggered by the fighting near the plant damaged the training facility about 450 meters from the nearest of the 6 reactors.
Basically, of the site's six reactors, five are in safe mode, and a difference of Chernobyl, the technology used in Zaporizhzhia is different. The Chernobyl reactor made use of the graphite to keep the nuclear reaction under control and the disaster was caused by a fire of this element.
Read also: Russia has permanently closed the Kursk Chernobyl-type nuclear reactor
The Zaporizhzhia plant, as Dodaro himself explained to us, as well as those of the other main plants in Ukraine (remember, in fact, that Ukraine is almost entirely dependent on nuclear energy and has 4 main power plants, with 15 reactors, which generate about half of its electricity), has pressurized water reactors, a more modern technology that does not involve the use of graphite.
#Zaporizhzhia people flock to the train station after the bombing of the nuclear power plant. pic.twitter.com/cKwgcliXZn
— Daily fact ?️??? (@DarioBallini) March 4, 2022
This type of reactor has a central part of a steel vessel with 20 centimeters thick walls, designed to withstand earthquakes and plane crashes, although not specifically artillery shells. Here are the nuclear fuel and radioactive products of the nuclear reaction, while the inner ship is inside a further containment building made of reinforced concrete and steel. All of this represents strong protection that Chernobyl did not have.
However, one last consideration remains: the internationally recognized principle of guaranteeing the physical integrity of civil nuclear plants has in fact been disregarded.
HERE you can find the complete interview with Alessandro Dodaro.
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