'Like a horror movie': Ukrainians living near Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant bracing for radiological disaster

02 July 2023

Residents of the region surrounding the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant outside of Enerhodar, Ukraine are bracing for a potential Russian attack on the facility, which is Europe's largest fission-generated energy station.

Zaporizhzhia and its six six-gigawatt reactors "has been in continual danger as Russian and Ukrainian troops trade fire in its vicinity, but the chance of a meltdown has increased sharply since the destruction of the Kakhovka dam just downstream," correspondents Fredrick Kunkle and Kostiantyn Khudov ofThe Washingon Postreported late Saturday night. "The June 6th breach unleashed a catastrophic flood and jeopardized the supply of water needed to cool the plant’s reactors and spent fuel."

Nadiya Hez, a twenty-two-year-old nurse who lives in nearby Komakivka and "at least has iodine tablets on hand to mitigate the effects of radiation poisoning," said that the thought of a strike on Zaporizhzhia is "horrible — I don't even want to think about it."

Hez's fears are not unfounded. In the sixteen months since Russian President Vladimir Putin's invading forces commandeered the plant, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi have warned that shelling around Zaporizhzhia could trigger a radiological catastrophe. Chillingly, Major General Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukrainian military intelligence, told the Post that "Russians have planted explosives next to four of the six reactors and mined the cooling pond used to supply water to chill the reactors and spent fuel."

Budanov's spokesman, Andriy Yusov, added that "there is an extremely high risk of human error or, given the amount of explosives, an accidental detonation."

But that is only a singular potential hazard. Other threats, according to the Post, include the disruption of the flow of water from Kakhova used to cool the reactors and "the added pressure on remaining Ukrainian staff." An unnamed plant employee who spoke with the Post believes that "the threat of a terrorist attack is high."

If the spent fuel rods overheat, Budanov stressed, "the reactors could melt down within ten hours or two weeks."

The Post noted that rather than a Chernobyl-esque calamity, "the most likely worst-case scenario could be something on scale with the Fukushima disaster in 2011, when fuel in three of the Japanese nuclear plant’s four reactors melted down following a massive earthquake and tsunami." If that were to occur, the Post continued, "a poisonous cloud could spread across Ukraine, contaminating its agricultural heartland and probably drifting over European neighbors with radioactive particles that increase the risk of certain cancers. Radioactive contamination is likely to reach the Dnieper River, too, flowing into the Black Sea. Depending on water currents, the contamination could touch every country along the Black Sea's shores."

Meanwhile, Hez is far from the only citizen who is worried about a possible emergency.

"It's like a horror movie," said nurse Vita Lyashenko.

Olena Mykytiuk, who is on disability, similarly stated that she and her ailing husband "don't know how to prepare ourselves for radiation" and that they "are watching the news, and we know all they need to do is to press a button."

The Post's full article is available here (subscription required).

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