Abroad|The Russian attack
Spent nuclear fuel is immersed in cooling water, which takes several weeks to warm up and evaporate under electrical conditions.
Chernobyl The warming of spent fuel stored in the power plant area in Ukraine does not pose an immediate danger, even in the vicinity of the power plant, says the Finnish Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (Stuk). Nuclear waste is stored in cooling water, which takes a long time to heat up and evaporate under electrical conditions. Tomi Routamon probably for at least several weeks.
Director – General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Mariano Grossi gave a parallel on Tuesday reviews. According to the IAEA, the fuel rods are so old that cooling can work without electrical equipment.
Russian troops invading Ukraine immediately seized the area of the closed nuclear power plant on the first day of their attack almost two weeks ago. According to information at the time, maintenance workers at the accident power plant were arrested.
The Ukrainian government announced on Wednesday that the power line leading to the Turma area has been damaged in the fighting and there will be no more electricity to Chernobyl. Foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba called on the international community to demand an immediate ceasefire from Russia in order to restore electricity distribution. According to Kuleba, the diesel generators in the power plant area have only two days of fuel left to generate electricity.
Chernobyl the four reactors at the nuclear power plant were destroyed in the worst nuclear accident in world history in April 1986. Three other reactors were shut down after the accident, with the last reactor being shut down in December 2000.
According to Ukrainian data, about 20,000 bundles of fuel rods used in the power plant have been stored in the area, which corresponds to the power plant’s consumption for several years. In addition to the Ukrainians, the IAEA has also monitored the storage with the help of cameras, but according to the organization, they went dark as early as Tuesday.
“It’s not nice to be in the dark in a situation where no reliable measurement systems work,” says Stukin Routamo.
The spent fuel is immersed in cooling water, and in Finnish power plant areas, the rod bundles are at a depth of about ten meters, according to Routamo. In addition to cooling, the water acts as a radiation shield, for which a layer of water of about three to four meters is sufficient. The water temperature is maintained at about 30 degrees with cooling.
“If the refrigeration equipment stops working, it would take weeks for the water to start boiling or the bundles to appear,” Routamo estimates.
Cooling basins are in covered spaces from which water vapor can be discharged through filters. According to Routamo, there may be some radioactivity in the steam if the fuel assemblies are damaged.
A concrete shelter was built on top of the accident reactor itself as a Soviet emergency, which was completed in November 1986. The structure soon began to deteriorate and was replaced by a new sarcophagus, which was completed more than five years ago.
Scientific journal Science reported last year that there is still some degree of fission reaction under the sarcophagus, causing slowly accelerating neutron radiation. According to Routamo, boron-containing water has been pumped into the pulp of molten uranium fuel and other waste to control radiation.
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