Nuclear Power Plants in Ukraine Won't Withstand Wars [Report]

Because there have only been a few nuclear catastrophes throughout history, scientists have optimized nuclear plants to survive numerous situations that may undermine the facilities' flammable characteristics.

Since Russia invaded the Ukrainian mainland on February 24, 2022, air attacks have damaged Ukrainian infrastructure, including dams, leading energy specialists to issue a warning. Later in the year, warfare between the two nations persisted despite the sanctions on Russia.

Nuclear Plants Not Designed To Withstand Wars

Nuclear energy specialists are concerned that, if the situation in Ukraine is not handled, another disaster similar to Chernobyl might happen soon. After learning of allegations of shelling at the nuclear power plant in southeast Ukraine, diplomats sought a stop to hostilities between Russian and Ukrainian forces so that UN inspectors could get there.

The Washington Post pointed out that Russia and Ukraine have blamed the blasts on the other. Attacking a nuclear power station would be "suicidal," according to UN Secretary-General António Guterres. Additionally, he requested permission for IAEA inspectors, who serve as the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, to enter Zaporizhzhya.

According to a Bloomberg report, the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant has been the target of rocket and artillery strikes for months, revealing weaknesses that electricity suppliers would not typically have to consider. Reactors are normally designed to resist natural disasters like hurricanes, earthquakes, or aircraft crashes, but until recently, war was not considered.

"No nuclear power plant in the world has been designed to operate under wartime conditions," said researchers in one of the reports. "Nuclear power plants are immediately vulnerable," added the researchers.

This is especially true considering that Ukraine reported multiple missile attacks on Zaporizhzhia, where bombardments often cut off the city's power and water supply, forcing a plant that ordinarily produces a fifth of Ukraine's electricity to shut down.

Chernobyl, Nearly 30 Years Since Catastrophe — PRIPYAT, UKRAINE - APRIL 09: A sign warns of radiation contamination near former apartment buildings on April 9, 2016 in Pripyat, Ukraine. Pripyat, built in the 1970s as a model Soviet city to house the workers and families of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, now stands abandoned inside the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, a restricted zone contaminated by radiation from the 1986 meltdown of reactor number four at the nearby Chernobyl plant in the world's worst civilian nuclear accident that spewed radiaoactive fallout across the globe. Authorities evacuated approximately 43,000 people from Pripyat in the days following the disaster and the city, with its high-rise apartment buildings, hospital, shops, schools, restaurants, cultural center and sports facilities, has remained a ghost-town ever since. The world will soon commemorate the 30th anniversary of the April 26, 1986 Chernobyl disaster. Today tour operators bring tourists in small groups to explore certain portions of the exclusion zone. Sean Gallup/Getty Images

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Other Nuclear Industry Reports

The annual nuclear report also claimed that that the Russian invasion of Ukraine has led to a number of firsts in radiation hazards, including the functioning of nuclear power reactors for commercial purposes during a major conflict.

According to the research, operating reactors under physical threat, shelling commercial reactors, and enemy troops occupying nuclear sites might all offer significant hazards. No nuclear power plant in the entire world has been built to function in those circumstances.

Live Mint mentioned that the International Atomic Energy Agency have documented dozens of attacks at Zaporizhzhia, where occasional power and water supply cuts forced the closure of a facility that typically provides a fifth of the country's electricity.

The nuclear industry is working on a new generation of small-modular reactors, or SMRs, to replace the world's aging fleet of conventional facilities, and it is closely monitoring the station's durability.