Europe’s largest nuclear power plant on fire after shelling

[BoogyMan]

Not only is the plant on fire, but radiation levels are reportedly rising in the area around the plant. The foreign minister has said that if this plant blows it will be 10x the size of Chernobyl.

https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-war-a3092d8e476949ed7c55607a645a9154


Russian forces shelled Europe’s largest nuclear plant early Friday in the battle for control of a crucial energy-producing city, and the power station was on fire.Plant spokesman Andriy Tuz told Ukrainian television that shells were falling directly on the Zaporizhzhia plant and had set fire to one of the facility’s six reactors. That reactor is under renovation and not operating, but there is nuclear fuel inside, he said.
Firefighters cannot get near the fire because they are being shot at, Tuz said.
A government official told The Associated Press that elevated levels of radiation were detected near the site of the plant, which provides about 25% of Ukraine’s power generation. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the information has not yet been publicly released.
Tuz said it is urgent to stop the fighting to put out the flames.

[Kathianne]

Not only is the plant on fire, but radiation levels are reportedly rising in the area around the plant. The foreign minister has said that if this plant blows it will be 10x the size of Chernobyl.

https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-war-a3092d8e476949ed7c55607a645a9154

Yep, I just posted in energy thread. Bad news.

[BoogyMan]

Is this one a duplicate? Sorry.

[Kathianne]

Is this one a duplicate? Sorry.
Don't be. :thumb:It deserves its own thread. I'm pretty obsessive about adding to existing threads, if it makes sense to do so.

[Gunny]

March 4, 2022
VIENNA (Reuters) -Below are five facts about the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine, the biggest in Europe by capacity, which Russian troops have seized, according to the regional state administration.
Ukraine said Russian forces attacked the plant in the early hours of Friday, setting an adjacent five-story training facility on fire. The fire was later extinguished.
* Zaporizhzhia is the largest of Ukraine’s four nuclear power plants, which together provide about half the country’s electricity.
* This is the first time war has broken out in a country with such a large and established nuclear power programme, the International Atomic Energy Agency says.
* Zaporizhzhia’s six units each have a net capacity of 950 Megawatts electric, or a total of 5.7 Gigawatts electric, according to an IAEA database. The first unit was connected to the grid in 1984, and the last in 1995.
* The power plant is operating at just a fraction of its capacity. An internal IAEA notification seen by Reuters on Friday said:
– Unit 1 is “in outage”
– Units 2 and 3 “have been disconnected from the grid, and the cool down of the nuclear installation is being carried out”
– Unit 4 “is in operation at 690 MW power”
– Units 5 and 6 “are being cooled down”.
* The power plant is of strategic importance to Russia because it is only about 200 km from Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014.
(Reporting by Francois Murphy; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel)
https://www.oann.com/factbox-five-facts-about-ukraines-zaporizhzhia-nuclear-power-plant/

[Kathianne]

Thus a planned attack by Putin to turn off the lights in Ukraine.

[Gunny]

Thus a planned attack by Putin to turn off the lights in Ukraine.Not a popular opinion but I'll point out it's something he's trying to do that makes sense tactically. Unlike just about everything else his Keystone Kop army is doing:rolleyes:

Still, messing around with nukes is below the stupid bar. The Russians/Russian government themselves need to rein in this quack.

[Kathianne]

https://hotair.com/ed-morrissey/2022/03/04/putin-hey-maybe-we-can-all-get-along-now-n452904

One of my graduate classes we renamed, "Satan's Disciples". It was about leaders over history that purposefully used their power to destroy huge numbers of humans just because they needed to use their powers. I was talking to the professor of the class last night, he mentioned he was considering adding Putin into the final exam, "Should he join the list? Why or why not?"