Concerns are mounting as Russia continues its invasion of Ukraine as the crisis has reached the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. Many individuals are now wondering what would happen if the Kremlin bombed this location.
Some public figures fear that subsequent shelling of these locations may disperse the radioactive material well beyond Chernobyl's exclusion zone - a no-go area around the tragedy - and even into neighboring nations.
Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant
Popular Science said the Chernobyl nuclear power facility in Ukraine was built by the Soviet Union in 1977. The 1986 tragedy was caused by a poorly conducted safety test that went horribly wrong, resulting in a catastrophic meltdown and explosions.
On top of the wreckage of Reactor 4, a steel and concrete "sarcophagus" was erected in December 1986, confining the material yet porous enough to allow rainfall through.
The site's other three reactors remained operational for years, with the final one shutting down in December 2000. The three reactors that have not detonated are being gradually decommissioned, a process that will take decades.
Reactor 4 now rests beneath the New Safe Confinement, large steel and concrete construction completed in 2016. As of 2018, the ruins of Reactor 4 beneath that building contained an estimated 200 tons of radioactive fuel.
Ingesting Chemicals From Chernobyl Could Be Dangerous If Countries Bomb Site
According to the same Popular Science report, explosions from weapons that could hit the containment intentionally or accidentally might breach the process, albeit there is little military value in doing so.
Because the radioactive material has been degrading for an extended period, this is the case. Most of the material melted and flowed together in the first tragedy, forming lava of uranium, sand, graphite, and zirconium that later solidified. The debris of two isotopes, Cesium-137 and Strontium-90, might be rendered airborne with sufficiently focused explosive force.
What little Cesium-137 and Strontium-90 are left on the site is in the form of filth connected to other debris. Significant levels of Cesium-137 exposure can result in burns, radiation illness, and death.
Ingestion of strontium-90 is the most dangerous since it can cause bone cancer in people. Ingestion should be avoided, but malignancies function on a different time scale than military operations, making the targeted release of Strontium-90 a poor weapon option.
Dispersing either with an explosion would eject some into the air, but it would also spread out the filth, lessening the concentrations that one would face.
Radiation Levels To Increase If Military Forces Bomb Power Plant
Edwin Lyman, head of nuclear power safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said spending firepower on demolishing a confined tragedy from decades ago certainly offers a slight advantage in a conflict when both sides have finite weapons and plenty of targets.
Lyman said radiation levels near the site have recently become a source of worry, most likely due to radioactive dust stirred up by military vehicles.
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Hence, containing a large volume of radioactive material could be challenging if the military forces bombed Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.
Associated Press said Lyman is also concerned about the loss of electrical power at the plant due to war. This is where cooling pumps are required to maintain conditions calm within the spent fuel storage tanks.
He also told Live Science that spent fuel - or the radioactive atoms used to power the plant - continues to decay into more stable components, releasing heat in the process.
The spent fuel storage is the most significant concern, according to Lyman, since it contains the most concentrated amount of radioactive particles on-site.
In most cases, spent nuclear fuel retains decay heat. If it's in damp storage, he said there needs to be a means to get that heat out.
For at least a few decades, that fuel has been cooling. As a result, the decay heat isn't all that big, Lyman explained.
However, if a hole in the pool resulted in water draining, that fuel might possibly heat and burn. Lyman said that is most likely the most severe hazard if there is a loss of electrical power at the plant. However, he cautioned that such a burn might take days or weeks.
How Many Nuclear Reactors Are There in Chernobyl
Ukraine has a total of 15 nuclear reactors spread over four different locations. Modern safety standards are in place at such sites. Six of these reactors are located in Rivne and Khmelnytskyi, deep in western Ukraine.
Three reactors are housed in the south Ukraine facility at Mykolayiv, which is located on the western bank of the Dnieper River. Six reactors are housed in the Zaporizhzhya complex, which is situated between Russian-annexed Crimea and proclaimed separatist republics in eastern Ukraine.
The International Atomic Energy Agency's Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi issued a statement over this issue, saying IAEA is urging extreme prudence to prevent any action that may jeopardize the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant facilities.
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