A contested Ukrainian nuclear plant is under attack by Russian forces Russians in Ukraine seize Europe's largest nuclear power plant : NPR
is it cynical to hope for strong western-winds?
We were talking about this in the main thread. It is horrific beyond belief. I don’t think NATO can continue to sit this out. But that is also scary beyond hope.
I saw it was as in the main thread after i posted it, but i feel this is horrible enough to deserve its own thread. 
I agree. This makes everything far worse.
You mean eastern?
Anyhow, how blind can the Russians be to not know that firing on a nuclear facility leads to bad stuff for all involved?
Some links to possibly help y’all feel better.
For example, there doesn’t seem be any indication that a reactor is on fire.
“If it blows up”… OK, but why would it blow up? Blowing up isn’t something that nuclear power plants do, not even battle-damaged ones.
If the safety systems fail because they were not designed to withstand shelling by artillery (because nobody thought anyone would be so incredibly stupid to fire heavy artillery at a working nuclear plant), then it could potentially release very large amounts of radioactive material, potentially 10 times more than Cherynoble.
I am old enough to remember my mother sitting up at night during the Cuban Missal Crisis. I never thought this would happen again.
An easterly wind would mean that the radiation would be blowing into friendly countries. It needs to be a westerly wind to blow into Russia.
I just heard on MSNBC that the fire was in a training facility outside the plant’s perimeter, and there is no evidence of increased radiation levels.
I’m not sure I agree with you a hundred percent on your police work, there, Lou.
The Zaporizhzhia NPP is not an RBMK design like Chernobyl #4, of course; it is a relatively modern pressurized light water reactor of the VVFR-1000 design that uses the coolant as a moderator and so is presumably ‘fail-safe’ insofar as damage to the inner loop will cause the fission rate to fall below the necessary threshold to sustain the reaction and a large containment structure designed to withstand ‘normal’ damage, e.g. impact of an aircraft or seismic event, but a release of radioactive steam would not be healthy for nearby residents, nor would release of ‘expended’ fuel elements in on-site dry cask storage that could pose an environmental hazard for tens of thousands of years. The plant and its six reactors are located on Kakhovka Reservior, formed by damning of the Dnipro River, and is halfway between Dnipro and Melitopol, so I’m sure residents of those cities would be less than thrilled about an unconfined breach of nuclear waste. And regardless of the hazard of radioactive release, the plant provides nearly 20% of electrical power to the Ukraine, so shutdown would be a significant impact even if the reactors and fuel storage remain intact.
As long as there are nuclear-armed and -capable nations without a commitment to the surety of the safety of nuclear materials (backed up by international inspection) and no unilateral use of nuclear weapons, the potential for both deliberate and accidental hazard of an attack or release is possible. A review of the Japanese nuclear power industry gives pause for the notion that nuclear fission power is as absolutely safe as advocates claim even if you dismiss the Chernobyl and Fukushima INES Level 7 events as being statistical flukes. Of course, when you have an invading army pounding away at a reactor or nuclear material storage facility with reckless abandon, no plausible amount of design safety features is adequate.
Stranger
I got fixed in 1974 because I didn’t want to bring children up in the future world I envisioned. It took us longer to get here than I expected, but here we are.
Fire is out now.
I was in high school at the time of the Chernobyl explosion. I’m pretty much on the other side of the planet, but still more than a little freaked out. Envying my pets right now, since they don’t have a clue about this horror show. Their dishes are full, they’re safe and warm and loved, all is right in their little worlds. Worrying about people apparently insane enough to want another Chernobyl is the humans’ job.
I was in 4th grade when that happened. I remember seeing those maps, showing Cuba and the eastern parts of the United States, with concentric circles centered about Cuba showing how far the missiles could fly in 1 hour, 2 hours, 3 hours, etc. They had enough range that they could maybe have hit Washington DC.
I was growing up in Los Angeles, and even there, people were panicking. There was no way Cuban missiles of the day could have hit the west coast, as far as I know.
My mother came home from shopping one day and announced that the shelves were bare. Backyard bomb shelters and installations were selling like hotcakes.
Yes, this. Winds are normally named according to the direction they are coming from (with certain confusing exceptions). Thus, a WEST wind is blowing from west to east.
Russia deliberately causes a disaster in a nuclear power plant => world panics, shutters nuclear plants, returns to oil and gas => oil and gas prices rise => oil and gas producing countries like Russia profit.
Russia deliberately causes a disaster in a nuclear power plant => world panics, shutters nuclear plants, returns to oil and gas => oil and gas prices rise => oil and gas producing countries like Russia profit.
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dont ascribe to malice what can be explained by stupidity …
the whole Ukraine-campaign is a whole “The Marx Brothers trying to invade a country” disaster for russia…