Ukraine’s attempts to attack the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant “raises great concern.”
— International Atomic Agency Director General Rafael Grossi.
Kursk Gambit: The Samson Option
Ukraine Targeting Nuclear Power Plants
—In Russia and Ukraine
Dr. Chris Busby / Sputnik Globe
Dr. Chris Busby, a renowned physical chemist, scientific secretary of the European Committee on Radiation Risk and former member of the UK Defense Ministry’s Oversight Committee on Depleted Uranium, shares his concerns about the situation around the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant with Sputnik.
MOSCOW (August 25, 2024) — The recent major Ukrainian military incursion across the Russia border in the Kursk oblast has left everyone scratching their heads in puzzlement. What possible advantage is gained in this war by invading an area of no apparent strategic importance? When it is clear that full-on defense is necessary in the East. But from the beginning, a number of commentators identified the obvious target in the area: the Kursk nuclear power station.
I will share some thoughts about the serious dangers associated with targeting nuclear power stations. Or the existence of NPPs in war zones in time of war. In a previous article I wrote about the Ukraine attacks on the Zaporozhye Nuclear Plant, I mentioned the Samson option. Like [the Biblical hero] Samson, who pulled the pillars down and killed everyone including himself, it is all you have left when everything is lost. Although here it may have a more strategic component.
A nuclear disaster in Zaporozhye with a melt-down or an explosion releasing fission-products like Chernobyl to Europe and the world would invite the invasion of the area by Europe (by NATO) to ‘save’ the Europeans from the downstream effects of any exacerbation.
It seems that Ukraine continues to shoot missiles and drones at the Zaporozhye plant. But that plant itself is a pressurized water reactor with thick concrete walls that would be pretty hard to penetrate. Of course, the spent fuel pools are easy to hit, and the supplementary control systems, the cooling, and those things are vulnerable.
But Kursk is another matter. This nuclear site has the RBMK reactors like Chernobyl, and these have no thick concrete shielding. They are therefore vulnerable to missile and drone attacks, which could damage the reactor systems directly. Unlike Zaporozhye, where the reactors are in shutdown, in Kursk, one of these is apparently operating. And it appears that Ukraine is shooting missiles and drones at the Kursk plant.
As with Zaporozhye, the Russians have sent for the cavalry, in the form of IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi. He has visited and agreed that there is indeed danger of a nuclear incident. That he was shown evidence of military activity near the plant and agreed that this was a bad thing. Well, what else could he say? He is apparently going to Kiev to talk to President Zelensky.
There are two things I think about this. First, following all the arguments about who blew up the Nord Stream pipelines, it seems clear that Ukraine is not one organization, but many. There are inputs from a range of actors in the West and also different ideas about what to do held by actors and groups inside Ukraine itself.
Who is in charge? It seems to me that no-one really has control of everything that happens and that there are independent chaotic elements in play here with aims and strategies that are hard to fathom. The possibilities in this new Kursk theater are therefore scary.
For example, it is an obvious Great Game strategy to pop a cruise missile into the critical Kursk reactor, cause a nuclear explosion and then call in NATO to ‘save’ Europe. That’s the one [thing] I fear. And having Grossi visit Kiev seems to me to have no real value except to keep the issue on the front pages for a while. Grossi is not a policeman. We do not need Grossi to tell everyone that there are serious downstream effects associated with firing missiles at a vulnerable and operating nuclear reactor.
What is the solution? It is to do whatever it takes to stop Ukraine or those actors inside (or outside) Ukraine from arranging attacks on either of the nuclear plants. If one of those reactors goes up, Europe is in deep trouble.
Ukraine Attacking Russian Nuclear Plants is
Height of Lunacy and Moral Irresponsibility
Ekaterina Blinova / Sputnik International
(July 14, 2024) — Ukraine’s attacks on Russia’s nuclear power plants must be of concern to European politicians and the international community in general because of the potentially disastrous consequences, famous nuclear expert Dr. Christopher Busby told Sputnik.
An aircraft-type drone crashed and detonated in the Russian town of Kurchatov on Friday just a few kilometers from the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant (NPP). Earlier, in April, another drone attack on the plant by was repelled by Russia’s air defenses.
In August 2022, Ukrainian saboteurs carried out at least three terrorist attacks against the Kursk NPP and blew up six towers of high-voltage power lines (110, 330 and 750 kV), through which the nuclear power plant supplies energy to industrial, transport, life support, and social infrastructure of the region, as per the Federal Security Service (FSB).
Similarly, the FSB prevented a terrorist plot by a sabotage group of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine that planned to blast more than 30 power transmission towers of high-voltage power lines of the Leningrad and Kalinin Nuclear Power Plants (NPP) in May 2023.
Why Ukraine’s Attack May Result in Chernobyl 2.0
As per Busby, the Kursk NPP has some similarity with the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant: in particular, has three Chernobyl-type RBMK graphite moderated direct steam-producing reactors of about 1000MW, each making a total electrical output of about 3000MW. The Kursk NPP is one of the three largest nuclear power stations in Russia.
“So, this is a Chernobyl-equivalent reactor system and if any of the reactors or their cooling water systems is destroyed we could see an exact copy of the Chernobyl meltdown and nuclear explosion,” the scientist said.
The Chernobyl disaster occurred on April 26, 1986, at the fourth reactor in the Chernobyl NPP located at the settlement of Pripyat, 16 km northwest of the city of Chernobyl, the Ukrainian SSR. The resulting explosion and fire in the graphite reactor core released large amounts of radioactive material into the atmosphere, with the contamination reaching Europe. On April 28 Swedish monitoring stations recorded high levels of wind-transported radioactivity.
As such, a potential disaster at the Kursk NPP could result in substantial contamination of Russia, Ukraine and Europe, Busby warned.
“Such an event would heavily contaminate the region around 50 km radius and also, like Chernobyl, contaminate Europe, with differences in various countries dependent on the weather conditions,” the physical chemist said.
“So, the results would go beyond Russia. Kiev is about 300 km to the southwest and should the wind direction be northeasterly, it would be significantly contaminated. We must recall that radioactive contamination caused increases in child leukemia and other cancer in Wales and Scotland, some 1,800 miles away, and increased breast cancer rates in Sweden, as I know from studies I have personally carried out and published in scientific journals and at conferences including a World Health Organization (WHO) conference in Kiev in 2000.”
Busby warned that nuclear contamination in the result of a potential sabotage against the Kursk NPP would also affect agriculture, “making produce from the 200 km region or further around the site harmful to health and thus not exportable.”
“In addition to attacks making the cooling systems to the plant fail (including destroying electrical inputs to the site) there is also the dangerous possibility that spent fuel cooling ponds might be attacked and fail, leading to similar disastrous consequences,” the scientist highlighted.
Attacks on Zaporozhye NPP and Kakhovka Dam
Apart from targeting nuclear power plants in mainland Russia, the Ukrainian military is continuing to shell the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant in the region that joined Russia in 2022. In May, International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi proposed a five-point plan to help ensure safety and security at the Zaporozhye NPP.
Speaking to Sputnik at the time, Busby noted nuclear power plants are “effectively a controlled nuclear bomb.” He warned that the radioactive fallout from a possible disaster at the Zaporozhye NPP would “make Europe pretty much uninhabitable.”
The Ukrainian forces’ attack on the dam of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant (HPP) on June 6 also posed a nuclear risk, given that water from the Kakhovka reservoir is used to cool the Zaporozhye NPP’s six reactors and spent fuel storage, according to the scientist.
West’s Silence Could Translate
Into ‘Mad Max Reality’ for Europe
At the time, Busby lamented the fact that the West demonstrates an unwillingness to hold the Kiev regime responsible for these irresponsible actions which could backfire on the European population, heightening the risk of health problems and early deaths.
In his previous interviews with Sputnik, Busby also condemned the UK’s decision to arm the Ukrainian Army with depleted uranium ammunition. He referred to a subsequent huge explosion in the Western Ukrainian town of Khmelnitsky in May resulting in nothing short of a radioactive cloud.
The renowned nuclear expert has repeatedly warned both Kiev and the West that their gamble with nuclear power would end in nothing short of “Mad Max reality” for Europe.
Related News
• Scientist: Ukraine Attacking Russian Nuclear Plants is Height of Lunacy and Moral Irresponsibility
• Military Activity Near Kursk Nuclear Power Plant Raises Concerns About Its Safety – Grossi
• Zaporozhye Nuclear Plant’s Cooling Tower ‘Seriously’ Damaged by Ukrainian Drone Attack – Rosatom
* Will Zelensky Cause Chernobyl 2.0?
