Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has left the entire region at a heightened risk of radioactive pollution

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星期四, 四月 25, 2024

Nuclear power plant, Radiation, Void coefficient, Physics, Risk, International Atomic Energy Agency, Research, Conflict, Power plant engineering, Plant, IAEA, Water, Safety, Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant, National Science Centre, War, Uranium mining

While both Ukraine and Russia deny responsibility for the drone attack, it’s clear that Russia’s ongoing invasion has put the site at active risk.

Key Points:

While both Ukraine and Russia deny responsibility for the drone attack, it’s clear that Russia’s ongoing invasion has put the site at active risk.
Radioactive pollution from nuclear reactors
Ukraine is a country with hundreds of industrial facilities across various sectors.
Pollution from other sites
Aside from nuclear reactors, Ukraine hosts other sites that pose a radiation risk if sabotaged or mishandled.
There is a real risk that this water may allow radioactive pollution to spread across a wide area.

The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is a 'dirty bomb' waiting to happen – a nuclear expert explains

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星期三, 七月 12, 2023

After the explosion at the Kakhovka Dam in Ukraine last month, many Ukrainians feared the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant could be next.

Key Points:

After the explosion at the Kakhovka Dam in Ukraine last month, many Ukrainians feared the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant could be next.
So, how serious are the risks of an attack at the power plant?

Europe’s largest nuclear power plant

Before the Russian invasion, Ukraine generated about half its electricity from 15 nuclear power reactors across four sites, with Zaporizhzhia generating almost half of this.
The plant has cooling ponds for spent nuclear fuel, which require continuous power and water (like the reactors themselves).
Read more:
Could the Ukraine dam attack pose risks to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant?

How quickly a meltdown could happen

The sixth was maintained in hot shutdown at around 200 degrees Celsius, producing steam for the plant.
in a pressurised water reactor, the meltdown of the core could occur within less than one minute after the loss of coolant.
The radioactivity released from damaged spent fuel ponds could be even greater than from a meltdown at the reactor itself, he wrote.
The radioactive release could possibly be at Chernobyl-scale or even larger amounts if multiple reactors and spent fuel ponds were involved.

A nuclear plant under continuous assault

Read more:
Russian shelling caused a fire at a Ukrainian nuclear power plant – how close did we actually come to disaster?
The other three nuclear power plants in Ukraine have also experienced interruptions to their electricity supply.

A wake-up call to the dangers of nuclear power

Some nuclear experts have inappropriately downplayed the risk of deliberate or accidental breach of the containment structures at Zaporizhzhia.
Russia has already launched large-scale attacks on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine, including its energy grid.
The reality is that as long as nuclear power plants continue to operate, we are frighteningly vulnerable not only to severe accidents, but also to the weaponisation of these facilities.

Kakhovka Dam breach in Ukraine caused economic, agricultural and ecological devastation that will last for years

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星期五, 七月 7, 2023

Crops in fields and orchards in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia region were inundated, then left to shrivel after the water drained.

Key Points:

Crops in fields and orchards in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia region were inundated, then left to shrivel after the water drained.
We are a U.S. political scientist with research expertise on the post-Soviet region and a Ukrainian economist who studies agriculture.
While the long-term effects of the dam break are difficult to calculate, we believe that it will have a lasting impact on the climate of southern Ukraine.
Agricultural production could be reduced for years to come, with impacts that ripple through supply chains and affect food security around the world.

A fertile farming region

Local villages and towns came to depend on water and electricity from the dam and its reservoir.
Some 545,000 acres (220,000 hectares) of arable land in these two regions are irrigated, including over 20% of Kherson’s farmland.

Flooded fields, toxic water

Valuable perennial crops that relied on irrigation infrastructure fed by the reservoir will be flooded and then parched.
Farther downstream, the lower Dnieper, Southern Bug and Inhulets river basins have been polluted, imperiling agriculture and drinking water for southern Ukraine.
During the dam breach, 150 tons of oil leaked out, and at least 17 gas stations have been flooded.

After the flood, water shortages

Most importantly, without water from the reservoir, the fields of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and Crimea will dry out.
Coastal towns on the Sea of Azov, most importantly Berdyansk, have lost their main source of drinking water.
Without the Kakhovka Reservoir, however, Crimea is unlikely to receive irrigation water for at least a decade.

Fewer exports, higher prices

Southern Ukraine’s sunflower seeds, soy and cereals are major ingredients for industrially processed foods and livestock feed.
They provide the proteins and lipids that are the building blocks of the 21st-century diet.
Global food commodity prices shot up hours after the dam broke, as global grain traders anticipated food commodity shortages.
And so what we are going to see is a huge impact on global food security.”

An uncertain future

Loss of the Kakhovka Dam is the latest blow to a region that has suffered heavily during the war.
NASA satellite images show crops planted in 2022 that were never harvested.
In 1941, Joseph Stalin ordered Soviet troops to destroy the predecessor of the Kakhovka Dam to slow the advancing German army.

The destroyed Kakhovka dam once symbolized Russian-Ukrainian harmony

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星期二, 六月 20, 2023

Whoever destroyed it, the fall of the 67-year-old Kakhovka Dam stands as a symbol of the final death of the Soviet dream of inter-ethnic and constructive co-operation.

Key Points:

Whoever destroyed it, the fall of the 67-year-old Kakhovka Dam stands as a symbol of the final death of the Soviet dream of inter-ethnic and constructive co-operation.
The Soviet Union, which was dismantled in 1991, was more colonial than co-operative, more about oppressive politics than constructive economics.

Soviet Union on the rise

The Soviet Union had ended its international isolation.
Under Ukrainian-born leader Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet Union took part for the first time in United Nations development aid after a deal worked out by the United Nations’ aid chief, Canadian Hugh Keenleyside.
In 1955, a UN mission, mainly composed of officials from India, toured the Soviet Union, marvelling at economic progress in the non-Russian republics — Uzbekistan, Georgia and, above all, Ukraine.
The rebuilding of the cascading Dnieper dam series began in the aftermath of the German invasion of the Soviet Union, with retreating Nazi troops still close by.

Global admiration

A lesbian and feminist, she noticed the greater acceptance of women and homosexuality in the Soviet Union compared to the United States.
There was global admiration for rapid economic development in the early Soviet Union.
Economic progress, claims of inter-ethnic harmony and anti-colonialism mingled to build a positive Soviet reputation in the Global South.
It was a Ukrainian delegate to the UN, for example — Dmitry Manuilsky — who led the charge for Indonesian independence.

Soviet appeal

Symbols of Russian-Ukrainian co-operation, such as the Kakhovka Dam, stood at the core of the Soviet global appeal.
As a result of such projects, Soviet aid was welcomed in India, Indonesia and elsewhere.