Texas wildfires spreading rapidly – nuclear site under acute threat Medical check for drivers: Parliament holds EU countries responsible

Several forest fires have gone out of control in the American state of Texas. Republican Governor Greg Abbott declared 60 counties disaster areas so rescue workers could be consolidated. Due to unusually high temperatures and strong winds, the fires are spreading uncontrollably – a nuclear installation is also threatened by the flames.

The wind is fueling wildfires in Texas – and could be putting people in danger

According to authorities, the largest fire has already burned an area of ​​1,040 square kilometers. Since the fire broke out on Monday, the area has more than doubled. However, it is not yet clear what caused the fire.

And there is no improvement in sight: weather conditions are not expected to improve in the coming days, which will only further fuel the fires – and make them more dangerous. Many people have already had to flee the fires as the fires threaten populated areas in the north of the state. The intensity of the fires is mainly visible from the air, when a user is on it

“Texans are urged to limit activities that could cause sparks and take precautions to ensure the safety of their loved ones,” the governor warned.

The small town of Canadian in Texas, near the border with the state of Oklahoma, is especially at risk. “It seems like the end of the world,” a shopkeeper in the city told CNN. “All the trees are covered in white ash.”

A nuclear installation that already had to be evacuated due to the fires also contributes to the danger. “We have evacuated our non-essential personnel from the site out of an abundance of caution,” said Laef Pendergraft, spokesman for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s production office. He emphasized that “we have a well-equipped fire brigade, trained for such scenarios, who are on site and ready in the event of an emergency on the facility premises.” Activities have been suspended until further notice.

This is why a fire near nuclear facilities becomes dangerous

The Pantex facility, located about 30 miles east of the city of Amarillo, has been the primary assembly and dismantling facility for U.S. nuclear weapons since 1975. The last bomb was assembled there in 1991. Since then, thousands of weapons have been dismantled.

In theory, if a fire were to occur in a nuclear facility, a safety mechanism would have to be installed to isolate the fire so that it cannot spread. This is ensured with the help of so-called fire dampers, which close automatically in such a case. In addition, according to “Detector.FM”, most power plants work according to the so-called redundancy principle: if one pump fails, three other pumps can compensate for this failure.

If it is not possible to prevent the spread of flames in the event of a fire, radioactive radiation may be released. On March 11, 2011, a tsunami damaged four of the six reactor blocks of the Fukushima nuclear power plant, resulting in a nuclear meltdown. As a result, large amounts of radioactive material were released.