Putin has copied the Palestinian tactic of staging weapons near something no ethical army would risk hitting, the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine.
Nuclear power is admittedly, controversial. Because nuclear technology, AKA atomic, had its origins in the race to build the A-bomb people still equate atomic and to a lesser extent nuclear with devastation. That’s one reason utilities stopped using the term “atomic energy.” Non-Soviet nuclear power plants have been designed with multiple safeguards designed-in to prevent the worst-case scenario. There have been four significant nuclear events. The worst happened at Chernobyl, a Soviet-built plant in Ukraine. The plant designed in the Soviet Union was unusual in many ways, the worst of which was that, to save money, it lacked any containment vessel. All other nuclear plants have a containment vessel big enough and strong enough to contain all the steam and radiation in the system in the event of a failure. Chernobyl was a BWR, boiling water reactor, that circulates radioactive steam through the turbine. Unauthorized experiments tested the system to failure.
Next was Fukushima, it had a containment structure, but built in the shape of a cube, not as a pressure vessel. The plant was poorly maintained and vulnerable to failure. Further it was another BWR, radioactive water circulated outside the containment. Worse, mandatory control updates were not installed. An earthquake and tsunami tested these faults and it failed.
Third, the little publicized Kyshtym disaster occurred at a fuel processing plant deep in Russia. Careless accumulation of radioactive materials went critical and exploded causing the vast release of radioactive material that was entirely within Russia and the Soviets were able to keep it secret for many years.
Everyone has heard of Three Mile Island. The American reactor that melted down due to incompetence of the operators. They should have just put their hands in their pockets and walked away, but they didn’t. Each time safety systems shut down the reactor they tried to restart it. Fortunately, it was a PWR, Pressurized Water Reactor with a large containment vessel that was built as bomb resistant pressure tank and held everything. Nearby residents were exposed to less radiation that entire year than one would on a transcontinental flight. An operator in an American nuclear reactor may not be disciplined for hitting the SCRAM button to shut it down.
The U.S. Navy, Electricite de France and many smaller utilities, have thousands of reactor years of experience with PWRs, and no significant radiation events. PWRs around the world provide safe power and it’s silly to shut them down because of Fukushima. That would be like ditching your BMW because a Pinto exploded.
Most reactors are fueled with uranium probably because we learned a lot about it from the World War II Manhattan A-bomb project and we had built a uranium processing infrastructure. Thorium may be a better safer fuel, but it was ignored because it was not practical for bombs. India is leading the way now with thorium fueled reactors. Small modular reactors may replace the behemoths we know now. They can be factory built and shipped complete so they will be safer and less expensive.
Now there is a threat of misuse of nuclear plants in Ukraine. Radioactive dust from Chernobyl has already been released by Russian activity. Fortunately, it seems that the prevailing westerly winds blew it back to Russia. Russia has been notoriously casual and secretive with nuclear facilities. The Zaporizhzhia nuclear facility is now under Russian control, though Ukrainians are still operating the reactors, at gunpoint; anything can happen. At least the structures look like containment vessels. Western reactors will safely shut down automatically if something goes wrong, but Soviet designs are like everything Russian, shrouded in secrecy.
Nuclear facilities have the capability to produce vast amounts of baseline reliable electricity, but can be dangerous in the wrong hands — whether evil, or merely incompetent. The spent fuel can be a real problem. Nobody wants it in their backyard, but due to strange politics we do not recycle like they do in France. Instead, it is stored in pools or outdoor dry-casks indefinitely while politicians debate what to do with it. Politicians who know less than you do.
Ken Obenski is a forensic engineer, now safety and freedom advocate in South Kona. He writes a biweekly column for West Hawaii Today. Send feedback to obenskik@gmail.com
