Ukraine Becoming a Land of Death Even After the War — The Worst that Can Happen in Russia’s Attack on a Nuclear Facility

The human race is in danger of a massive spread of radioactive materials due to a Russian military attack.

On March 27, a human rights official of the Supreme Council of Ukraine noted that a large fire had broken out near the Chornobyl (Chernobyl) nuclear power plant in the north of the country. He said that the fire spread over 10,000 hectares (about 2,100 Tokyo domes) of forest in 31 locations due to the Russian military action. Radioactive materials are said to have flown into the air, resulting in air pollution.

The April 1986 accident has shut down all the reactors at the Chornobyli nuclear power plant. But there are still 20,000 spent nuclear fuel bottles stored on the site. There was a good chance that the fire could have spread to the nuclear fuel storage facility, leading to a major accident.

The fire should be extinguished as soon as possible, but the approximately 200 nuclear workers detained by the Russian military will not be able to afford to do so. They are forbidden to return home and have been working without a break, unable to take shifts for more than a month since February 24, when the Russian military took control of the site. They sleep and wake up on tables and on the floor, and have only one meal a day of bread. I think their exhaustion has reached an extreme level,” said a reporter from the international section of a national newspaper.

According to Reuters and other sources, the Russian military has reportedly begun withdrawing from Chornobyli, but there are other nuclear power plants in peril.

Damage is 10 times that of Chornobyli.

Stop attacking nuclear facilities!

When the Russian military shelled the southern Sabolzhye nuclear power plant on March 4, Western media repeatedly reported the workers’ cries of grief. The shelling destroyed the facility, which was about 300 meters from the reactor.

Unlike Chornobyli, the reactor at Sabolzhiye is still operational. “Unlike Chornobyli, Sabolje’s reactor is still in operation, and with its six reactors, it is one of the largest nuclear power plants in Europe. If the plant were to explode, an estimated 100,000 tons of radioactive material would be dispersed, exposing more than 3.42 million people to radiation, ten times the amount of damage caused by the Chornobyl disaster.

An attack on a nuclear power plant is a clear violation of international law, forbidden by the Geneva Conventions. The Russian military has attacked not only Chornobyl and Sabolzhiye, but also the Institute of Physics and Technology in Kharkov in the east. A large amount of nuclear fuel is also stored at the institute.

The purpose of the Russian military’s attacks on nuclear-related facilities is reportedly to destroy Ukraine’s electricity supply grid and to prevent the country from going nuclear. However, the Russian military does not seem to be fully aware of the horror of nuclear power plants. Petero Kotin, acting president of Energoatom, a Ukrainian nuclear power company, told Kyodo News in an interview.

The Russian military had no knowledge of the danger of shelling [nuclear facilities]. If the nuclear fuel storage facility was hit, it could have spread a lot of radioactive material.

Russian soldiers worked in the highly contaminated area near the plant without protective clothing. The International Atomic Energy Agency has expressed concern that many may have been exposed to radiation inside their bodies.

In the future, we will have to assume the worst. Dr. Masashi Goto, a former nuclear power plant design engineer at Toshiba Corporation and a doctoral candidate in engineering, tells us, “The nuclear power plant in Russia has been exposed to a large amount of radiation.

Ukraine is a nuclear powerhouse, relying on nuclear power plants for about 50% of its electricity. If the nuclear fuel from multiple nuclear power plants came under direct attack by Russian forces, the damage would be unimaginable. Depending on the direction of the wind and other factors, most of the northern hemisphere could become a ‘land of death,’ uninhabitable for decades to come. Moreover, Ukraine is a major breadbasket, known as the “world’s food basket. Flour and other crops will be contaminated, and Europe will be food insecure.

Even without a Russian military attack, there is still the danger of a major accident. It is worrisome that nuclear plant workers are being detained by the Russian military. The workers are working with a sense of tension even under normal circumstances. Even more so if soldiers with guns are nearby. I am concerned that serious operational errors could occur due to extreme tension and exhaustion, such as a malfunction of the nuclear fuel cooling system.”

The conclusion of peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine will not solve all problems. The entire human race will still suffer enormous postwar damage from the explosion of the nuclear power plant.