The situation at Zaporizhzhia (currently) does not seem to be an impending disaster. The fire is/was in an administrative building. Fires at nuclear power plants can be serious, but the reactor buildings are concrete and would not easily catch fire due to nearby shelling or other external factors.
Some click-seekers on Twitter have made comparisons to Chernobyl. That kind of explosion cannot happen accidentally at Zaporizhzhia (it’s a safer power plant design with sturdy containment structures surrounding the reactors). If the Russians wanted to cause a massive radioactive cloud like Chernobyl, they would have to use their own explosives, and I think it would take a very big bomb to do it. They would have to blow the roof off the containment building first, and then somehow break open the massive steel reactor vessel and spread the contents into the air.
A Fukushima-style meltdown also does not look very plausible unless someone takes over the plant and intentionally disables safety systems.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaporizhzhia_Nuclear_Power_Plant is on fire. I wasn’t afraid of that. I didn’t believe it possible.
The situation at Zaporizhzhia (currently) does not seem to be an impending disaster. The fire is/was in an administrative building. Fires at nuclear power plants can be serious, but the reactor buildings are concrete and would not easily catch fire due to nearby shelling or other external factors.
Some click-seekers on Twitter have made comparisons to Chernobyl. That kind of explosion cannot happen accidentally at Zaporizhzhia (it’s a safer power plant design with sturdy containment structures surrounding the reactors). If the Russians wanted to cause a massive radioactive cloud like Chernobyl, they would have to use their own explosives, and I think it would take a very big bomb to do it. They would have to blow the roof off the containment building first, and then somehow break open the massive steel reactor vessel and spread the contents into the air.
A Fukushima-style meltdown also does not look very plausible unless someone takes over the plant and intentionally disables safety systems.
More info here: https://mobile.twitter.com/isabelleboemeke/status/1499594126521679872
https://mobile.twitter.com/BeCurieus/status/1499604899990052866
Thank you, this is great. I still have lots of misgivings, safety-wise, but I guess this is how it is for now.