The tension on the border between Ukraine and Russia has been going on for a year. In early 2021, the two sides began to mobilize a large number of troops in the border area.
So far, there are still a large number of military forces on the Russian-Ukrainian border. The continued tension between the two sides inevitably raises the question of what gonna happens to the nuclear power plants in Ukraine if a large-scale conflict breaks out between the two sides. You must know that there are currently as many as 15 nuclear reactors in Ukraine!
The Chernobyl nuclear power plant, where the most serious nuclear leak in history occurred, is located in Ukraine. It can be said that whether Ukraine itself or the surrounding Russia and Eastern European countries have a deep understanding of the nuclear leak. There are 15 nuclear power plants on a land of 600,000 square kilometers, which is one of the countries with the highest density of nuclear power plants. More importantly, the Zaporizhye Nuclear Power Plant, the second largest nuclear power plant in Europe, located in Ukraine, is less than 200 kilometers away from Russia.
Some netizens are worried: Will the nuclear power plants in Ukraine be in high danger once a conflict breaks out? In particular, the nuclear power plants located on the border of Russia and Ukraine are in the war zone. Once these nuclear power plants are hit and exploded and cause nuclear leakage, the Chernobyl incident may be staged again, and due to the large amount of coal from Belarus and natural gas from Russia reduce, Ukraine cannot shut down all nuclear power plants as a precaution, because Ukraine is also in a cold winter!
This kind of worry is not unreasonable. After all, if there is a problem with more than a dozen nuclear power plants, it is equivalent to a dozen nuclear bombs! So once a conflict breaks out, will the nuclear power plants in Ukraine have no solution? Actually not so! The reasons are as follows.
1. Most of Ukraine’s nuclear reactors are not operating
During the Cold War, the Soviet Union not only deployed a large number of nuclear weapons in Ukraine, which was at the forefront of confronting NATO, but also built numerous nuclear reactors to generate electricity. This is the origin of the 15 nuclear reactors in Ukraine. However, at present, only 6 of the 15 nuclear reactors in Ukraine are in operation. The nuclear fuel rods of the remaining 9 nuclear reactors that are not in operation have already been dismantled, and the operation system of the nuclear power plant has been stopped. Once these nuclear reactors are destroyed, it will not cause too serious a nuclear crisis. .
2. Russia will not attack Ukrainian nuclear reactors
Attacking a country’s nuclear reactors is itself tantamount to a nuclear attack. As early as 1994, Russia promised to provide Ukraine with nuclear protection in order to get Ukraine to completely dismantle its nuclear weapons. Therefore, Russia will not make a Attacks on Ukrainian nuclear reactors. Moreover, with Russia’s military strength, there is no need to attack nuclear reactors at all. If attacking nuclear reactors will bring no international pressure to itself, there will be no other benefits, so Russia will not do it at all.
3. Less chance for accidentally bombed
Of course Ukraine does not want problems with the nuclear reactor. After all, the lessons of Chernobyl are still vivid. That is to say, even if the two sides have a conflict, no one wants problems with the nuclear reactor. Not only will there be no attack on the nuclear reactor, but the two sides They will try their best to protect the nuclear reactor from being accidentally bombed, and the location of the nuclear power plant is clear and the target is huge. As long as it is not intentional, the accidental explosion will not happen. Even if one or two stray bullets hit, it will not cause major problems.
You must know that Israel bombed the Iraqi nuclear reactor in 1981, but the core building of the nuclear reactor was continuously hit by 14 MK84 unguided bombs. If one or two ordinary stray bombs hit the nuclear power plant, there would be basically no serious consequences because of resistance capability. Therefore, although the number of nuclear reactors in Ukraine is quite large, there will not be serious problems due to the outbreak of conflicts and other situations.