Nuclear expert warns of explosives at Zaporizhia nuclear power plant: “Possibly much more catastrophic than Fukushima”

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The Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine is again in the center of attention: Moscow and Kiev accuse each other of planning an attack on the nuclear power plant. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, 45, raised the alarm in his daily video address on Tuesday evening: “We now have information from our secret service that the Russian military has placed objects resembling explosives on the roofs of several reactor blocks of the Zaporizhia nuclear plant. “

According to Kyrylo Budanov (37), head of the Ukrainian secret service, the Russians equipped four of the six reactor blocks with explosives on Tuesday. This information cannot currently be independently verified. Wolfgang Raskob, a nuclear technology expert at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, knows what happens when an incident actually occurs at the nuclear power plant. He explains to Blick: “If explosives were attached to the reactor blocks, the concrete shell of the power stations could be destroyed. That does not mean that the steel jacket around the reactor core would be damaged.”

How bad is a MAU in Zaporizhia?

All six reactors are currently shut down and do not require as much cooling as normal operation. But: according to information from the Ukrainian secret service, the cooling basin has also been mined. If this too were damaged, it would be the worst case scenario for Raskob: the total destruction of the infrastructure that cools the reactors. “If cooling is no longer possible, there is a risk that a meltdown could occur,” he warns. “If all six plants were affected, it could be much more catastrophic than Fukushima.”

The two warring parties repeatedly accuse each other of sabotaging the nuclear power plant. But this time things seem different. According to the Ukrainian secret service, Russian soldiers and employees of the Russian nuclear agency Rosatom have already fled. The employees who are still in the occupied nuclear power plant must leave it no later than Monday.

Demilitarized zone “absolutely necessary”

Gerhard Mangott (56), military expert at the University of Innsbruck, is decisive in an interview with Blick. But why do risky situations keep occurring around the nuclear power plant? According to Mangott for propaganda reasons. Both sides have the same goal: to convince the West that the other is such a villain that they will even accept nuclear catastrophe to achieve their goals. “This primal fear of nuclear contamination — both sides play with it because it’s easy to mobilize.”

He does not see a GAU (worst possible accident) coming in Zaporizhia and the Ukraine. In order to prevent a nuclear accident — whether intentional or not — it is imperative, according to Mangott, to create a demilitarized zone around the nuclear power plant. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has been demanding this for months. However, the two warring parties have not yet introduced them.

Source: Blick