With the onset of winter and
the increasing strain on Ukraine’s energy system, the threat of a new
nuclear disaster in Central Europe is becoming more than just a
theoretical danger. According to analysts from Energy Research & Social Science (ERSS), there is an 80% probability of a “serious accident” at one of Ukraine’s nuclear power plants before the year 2020. This
is due both to the increased burden on the nuclear plants caused by the
widespread shutdowns of Ukraine’s thermal power plants (the raw
material they consumed – coal from the Donbass – is in critically short
supply) and also because of the severe physical deterioration of their
Soviet-era nuclear equipment and the catastrophic underfunding of this
industry.
Should such an incident occur,
the EU would not only be faced with the potential environmental
consequences, but also – given the recent introduction of visa-free
travel – a large-scale exodus of Ukrainians out of contaminated areas.
Ukraine currently has four operating nuclear power plants: the Zaporizhia (the largest in Europe, with six reactors and a combined power output of 6,000 MW), the Rivne (four reactors and a combined power output of 2,880 MW), the Khmelnitskiy (two reactors and a combined power output of 2,000 MW), and the South Ukraine (three reactors and a combined power output of 3,000 MW).
The Chernobyl plant with its four reactors was finally shut down for good in 2000.
Of the 15 nuclear reactors
currently operating in Ukraine, 12 were brought online during the Soviet
era, prior to 1990. All of them rely on the classic type of VVER nuclear reactors that
were designed during the 1960s and 1970s at the Kurchatov Institute in
Moscow. Those reactors should have a maximum life expectancy of 30
years. But as of today, 10 of the 15 reactors operating in Ukraine have already outlasted their expected service life.
Data: 16.10.2017
Fonte: www.globalresearch.ca
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