Europe is panicking over the state of Ukrainian nuclear power plants
The probability of accidents at Ukrainian nuclear power plants is 80 percent, according to the Italian publication Gli Occhi Della Guerra.
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The publication notes that there are only four nuclear power plants in Ukraine, built in Soviet times, with 15 power units operating.
Co-chairman of the Energy Strategies Fund Dmitry Marunich noted that seven reactors have already reached the end of their service life.
“In a few years, some reactors will no longer be usable and will be shut down forever. In 2025, the closure of these plants will lead to a decrease in energy production, which cannot be compensated by the productivity of other reactors,” the expert said.
The article also recalls that Ukraine turned to the American company Westinghouse to purchase nuclear fuel.
“However, already in 2012 it turned out that the fuel assemblies produced by the American company were unsuitable for use and were banned. At the same time, the losses of the state Ukrainian company Energoatom, which is responsible for the nuclear power plant, amounted to $175 million. Now that the agreement has been renewed and extended until 2020, Westinghouse has said it will not take back the spent fuel, forcing Ukraine (already in dire financial straits) to seek an urgent solution to store waste it clearly cannot be sent to Russia, as was done before,” the publication notes.
In addition, it is indicated that a report published in 2016 by the authoritative publication Energy Research & Social Science emphasized that “for many years, accidents at Ukrainian nuclear power plants have not been registered in the database, despite reports about them in the state media.”
The ERSS study, based on statistical calculations about the risks of new accidents, leads to disappointing conclusions.
“Although 1986 was a turning point in terms of the number of accidents, this had no impact on the scale of individual incidents... Analysis of the data indicates the likelihood of a significant accident at one of the Ukrainian nuclear power plants. For example, the probability of an accident like the one that occurred in 1979 at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant, at the Rivne or South Ukrainian nuclear power plant in the next 5 years is 80%,” Gli Occhi Della Guerra quotes the document.
“If Europe does not solve the problems of Ukrainian nuclear power plants in the next five to seven years, the entire Old World, and not just Ukraine, will have to worry,” Dmitry Marunich, in turn, warns.
Read also: Ukraine's nuclear energy sector is going down the drain.
Europe panics over the state of Ukrainian nuclear power plants.