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France’s nuclear corrosion problem will need a ”large scale” plan, and ”several years” to fix.

The head of French nuclear regulator ASN said on Tuesday (17 May) that
fixing corrosion problems at some of state-controlled utility EDF’s
nuclear reactors would require a “large scale” plan and “several
years” as he warned of a risk more reactors could be halted.

 Euractiv 18th May 2022  https://www.euractiv.com/section/electricity/news/fixing-edfs-reactors-corrosion-mystery-to-take-several-years-french-regulator-warns/

Fixing EDF’s reactors corrosion mystery to take several years, French regulator warns

May 19, 2022 Posted by | France, safety | Leave a comment

France’s Nuclear Safety authority struggles with the problems realated to corrosion in 12 reactors

Nuclear: faced with the problem of corrosion, a “large-scale” control
program. The president of the Nuclear Safety Authority, Bernard Doroszczuk,
gives a “general positive assessment” of the safety of the park, but
underlines “points of vigilance”.

The traditional exercise aimed to take
stock of the state of nuclear safety in 2021. In the end, it was the events
that occurred during the very last weeks of the year, but also during the
first months of 2022, that was at the heart of Bernard Doroszczuk’s speech
to the members of the Parliamentary Office for the Evaluation of Scientific
and Technological Choices on Tuesday 17 May.

The President of the Nuclear
Safety Authority (ASN) returned to the consequences of the “stress
corrosion” phenomenon observed on parts of the pipes which allow water to
be injected into the main primary circuit in order to cool the core. of the
reactor in the event of an accident.

Since mid-December, EDF has shut down
or extended the shutdown of twelve units in order to carry out in-depth
assessments or repairs related to this problem. If the origin of this
corrosion is not completely determined, Mr. Doroszczuk indicated that it
could be due to the “design” of the reactors: the oldest and most
widespread in the fleet are based on an original technology American, while
the most recent were designed according to a model adapted by EDF. However,
the piping that goes from the primary circuit to the first valve is longer
and more complex on the second, and this route could generate greater
thermomechanical stresses.

 Le Monde 17th May 2022

https://www.lemonde.fr/planete/article/2022/05/17/nucleaire-face-au-probleme-de-corrosion-un-programme-de-controle-de-grande-ampleur_6126537_3244.html

May 19, 2022 Posted by | France, safety | Leave a comment

Atomic energy chief: Ukraine’s nuclear safety situation ‘far from being resolved’

Russian troops are still occupying Europe’s largest nuclear power plant at Zaporizhzhia. Politico  BY LOUISE GUILLOT The risk of a nuclear accident in Ukraine is still a source of concern, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said Tuesday, calling the situation “far from being resolved.”

Speaking at European Parliament hearing, IAEA chief Rafael Mariano Grossi said the agency’s main “preoccupation” remains Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine’s largest functioning nuclear power plant, which has been under Russian military control since early March.

“We have been living in a very fragile situation,” he said, explaining that the plant is currently run by Ukrainian state nuclear operator Energoatom but occupied by Russian troops.

Grossi added that Russian nuclear experts are also on site, but said their function “is not entirely clear.” Their presence “goes against every safety principle that we have” and creates the “potential for disagreement, for friction, for contradictory instruction,” he warned.

Russian military control of Zaporizhzhia in eastern Ukraine is also raising questions about the status of nuclear material at the site.

Because IAEA experts currently don’t have access to the plant, they can’t perform regular nuclear safeguard activities, including physical inventories and monitoring, according to Grossi.

“Without that we cannot ensure to the international community where the nuclear material is or what’s happening with it,” he said.

He added that IAEA had no evidence that Ukraine had started a nuclear weapons program before the war — contrary to Russian allegations.

“But when I’m confronted with a situation … where we have more than 30,000 kilograms of enriched uranium and a similar amount of plutonium and I cannot go and inspect … the situation with this nuclear material, it is a very real danger and something that should be considered in all its seriousness,” he said.

…………  Talks are ongoing with both sides, according to Grossi. “We’re not at a dead end.”

He added that a group of IAEA experts will make a second trip to the decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear power plant “very soon” to carry out additional repairs, but that the situation “appears to have been stabilized.”……..  https://www.politico.eu/article/iaea-rafael-mariano-grossi-ukraine-nuclear-safety-situation-not-resolve/

May 12, 2022 Posted by | safety, Ukraine | Leave a comment

Meltdown at Three Mile Island- USA’s closest nuclear close shave

Shortly after 4am on 28 March 1979, a pressure valve failed to close in
the Unit 2 reactor at Three Mile Island, a nuclear power plant on a strip
of land in central Pennsylvania’s Susquehanna River. The technical
malfunction, compounded by human error – control room workers misread
confusing signals and halted the emergency water cooling system – heated
the nuclear core to dangerously high levels.

The film The China Syndrome
was still in theaters, starring Jane Fonda as a television reporter
investigating cover-ups at a nuclear power plant whose meltdown could
release radioactive material deep into the earth, “all the way to
China”. Three Mile Island – still the worst commercial nuclear accident
in US history – was no China Syndrome, but it got terrifyingly close to
catastrophic, Chernobyl-level damage.

As the Netflix docuseries Meltdown:
Three Mile Island recounts, Unit 2 came less than half an hour from fully
melting down – a disaster scenario that would have sickened hundreds of
thousands in the surrounding area. Two days after the accident, an
explosive bubble of hydrogen gas was found in the reactor. The plant’s
operator, Metropolitan Edison, tried to downplay the risk of radioactive
releases, but panic ensued; more than 100,000 people fled the surrounding
area. Plant technicians were eventually able to slowly bleed the gas from
the cooling reactor, avoiding a deadly explosion.

Though workers inside theplant were exposed to dangerous levels of radiation, it remains unknown how
much contamination escaped the facility into the surrounding community. In
its second half, Meltdown, directed by Kief Davidson, homes in on the story
of Rick Parks, a cleanup supervisor turned whistleblower on the Bechtel
Corp, the company hired to conduct the billion-dollar cleanup by
Metropolitan Edison and supervised by the government’s Nuclear Regulatory
Commission (NRC).

“While a lot of people know about the disaster, they
don’t know about what happened in the cleanup phase and how close we were
to another disaster,” Davidson told the Guardian. “We dodged a bullet a
second time, and it was entirely due to the fact that Rick Parks and
[fellow whistleblower] Larry King stood up. “We should know about these
stories,” he added. “We should be able to look at the people who risk
everything in order to save communities from a potential disaster.”

 Guardian 5th May 2022

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/may/05/meltdown-three-mile-island-netflix-us-nuclear-accident

May 7, 2022 Posted by | incidents, media, USA | Leave a comment

UK Nuclear Waste Services to airgun blast the Irish Sea – the public not consulted

 Nuclear Waste Services and the “Community Partnerships” of South and
Mid-Copeland plan to airgun blast the Irish Sea this summer to test the
sub-sea geology.

This plan is to take place over the heads of the public
who have had no say on the matter despite seismic testing being a dangerous
and controversial technology with damaging impacts on marine life. We have
sent a letter to Living Seas North West to ask them not to collaborate with
this terrible plan.

There is also a petition to sign – the more shares and
signatures the more we will raise awareness and opposition to this plan to
airgun blast the Irish Sea every 10 seconds, 24 hours a day for four weeks
in July/August. 

Radiation Free Lakeland 5th May 2022https://mariannewildart.wordpress.com/2022/05/05/halt-seismic-testing-of-irish-sea-for-deep-nuclear-dump-this-summer/

May 7, 2022 Posted by | safety, Ukraine | Leave a comment

Meltdown: Three Mile Island – powerful new Netflix documentary series

The partial meltdown at the nuclear power plant at Three Mile Island in
Pennsylvania in 1979 was a perfect coalescing of factors in two senses.
First, a series of cascading mechanical and human errors brought the plant
close to a catastrophe that would have potentially made much of the East
Coast uninhabitable, we’re told in the new documentary “Meltdown: Three
Mile Island.”

Second, coming as it did both within memory of the height
of Cold War paranoia and days after the release of the film “The China
Syndrome,” the disaster was perfectly primed to set off anxieties about
the danger of atomic energy. “Meltdown: Three Mile Island,” a new
four-part documentary on Netflix, does an elegant job of braiding those two
truths — that Three Mile Island was a narrowly averted nightmare scenario
and that it lives on in the public imagination as an argument against
nuclear energy. It can default, especially in its early going, to tools of
the trade that feel underbaked — reenactments of, say, a phone ringing in
a school where children wait for news about the disaster, the camera
somewhat schlockily pushing in to amp up what’s already dramatic enough.

But the power of the story “Meltdown” tells, as well as the insight of
those on whom director Kief Davidson trains his camera, ultimately carries
the day.

 Variety 3rd May 2022

https://variety.com/2022/tv/reviews/meltdown-three-mile-island-netflix-1235256986/

May 5, 2022 Posted by | incidents, media, USA | Leave a comment

Asahi Shimbun – Japan’s nuclear industry needs to be more aware, more careful about terrorism risks.

Utilities urged to look far and wide to tackle nuclear terrorism threat, Asahi Shimbun, May 4, 2022 Despite a contrary assessment by nuclear regulators, a spate of recent security breaches at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant should not be considered endemic to the facility.

The Nuclear Regulation Authority compiled an interim report on its follow-up inspections on the unauthorized use of an employee ID card and disabled intrusion detection equipment at the plant in Niigata Prefecture.

……………………..   the report did not discuss why this was the case with Kashiwazaki-Kariwa alone or how this potentially disastrous situation could have remained overlooked.

It raises fears of a potential breach that could allow terrorists to seize control of the plant.

In our view, the NRA’s examination of the problems was far from comprehensive.

For instance, the interim report reiterated that practically no on-site inspections of the plant’s department that oversees the physical protection of nuclear materials were undertaken by top executives of the plant or TEPCO’s headquarters.

The nature of TEPCO’s overall organization and its management culture still raises many questions.

The report made eight demands of TEPCO. They include: A fundamental review of procedures for the physical protection of nuclear materials; reinforcement of intrusion prevention facilities and their maintenance system; more active use of input from on-site staff; and greater management participation and investment of management resources.

NRA Chairman Toyoshi Fuketa said at a meeting the onus was on TEPCO to prove its equipment and facilities for the physical protection of nuclear materials are fool-proof, even if the company’s corporate culture and attitude are below the line and its employees try to cut corners.

An urgent need exists for a framework to ensure that nuclear materials are protected should human error enter the equation, which obliges TEPCO to rectify its operations.

The company needs to not only meet the NRA’s demands but also go the extra mile to address issues needing attention as a matter of routine.

We also strongly urge the NRA to conduct more rigorous inspections.

Nuclear terrorism would have a catastrophic impact on society. An attack against a nuclear power plant could prove too much for its operator or regulatory authorities to handle alone……….. https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14613482

May 5, 2022 Posted by | incidents, Japan | Leave a comment

UN nuclear watchdog says situation at Russian-occupied Ukrainian nuclear plant is ‘unsustainable’

May 3, 2022 by Charles Digges, The United Nations nuclear watchdog has warned that Russian troops are
putting “unbelievable pressure” on workers at the Zaporizhzhya nuclear
power plant – which is both the largest in Ukraine and Europe as a whole
– saying the situation is “unsustainable.” Russian forces seized the
plant during a dramatic assault on March 4, and they have since then forced
Ukrainian plant operators to manage the site under extreme conditions. The
UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency has also reported that eight
specialists from Rosatom, Russia’s state nuclear corporation, are also
onsite.

 https://bellona.org/news/nuclear-issues/2022-05-un-nuclear-watchdog-says-situation-at-russian-occupied-ukrainian-nuclear-plant-is-unsustainable

May 5, 2022 Posted by | safety, Ukraine | Leave a comment

Ukraine’s nuclear power plants caught in the Crossfire of War With Russia

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has triggered fears of another nuclear power disaster in the region, 36 years after the world’s largest nuclear accident. The Revelator, May 2, 2022 – by Jordan Gass-Poore’

It took less than a minute after an unexpected power surge for one of the nuclear reactors at Chornobyl (Chernobyl in the Russian spelling) to explode on April 26, 1986, ripping the roof off and spewing dangerous chemicals into the air.

The event, and emergency cleanup that followed, left 30 workers dead, thousands exposed to cancer-causing nuclear material, and a legacy of radiation. Now, 36 years later and with war raging, Ukraine is desperate to prevent another nuclear disaster.

Nuclear reactors generate more than half of the country’s power. Ukraine is the first country with such a large and established nuclear energy program to experience war, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The country’s 15 nuclear reactors, housed in four power plants, have layers of safeguards to prevent core meltdowns like the one that happened in 1986, when Chornobyl was part of the Soviet Union. But wartime is far from normal conditions, and experts warn that Russian military action poses numerous threats to these facilities.

Andrey Ozharovsky, a Russian engineer turned anti-nuclear activist, said Ukraine’s nuclear infrastructure is “quite vulnerable” to the chaos surrounding military attacks.

Chornobyl, Again

Those attacks have already begun.

The Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant and the 20-mile exclusion zone around it, set up to limit further spread of radioactive material following the 1986 disaster, were captured by Russian forces on Feb. 24. It was in their control until they withdrew from the site on March 31.

Although Chornobyl is not an active nuclear power plant, the massive cap covering the reactor that exploded decades ago still needs to be maintained to prevent further radiation leakage.

Sensors put in place by the Ukrainian Ecocentre in case of an accident reported a spike in radiation levels shortly after the capture, likely due to Russian military vehicles stirring up radiation in the environment.

The IAEA said the rise wasn’t enough to pose a public health hazard.

Ozharovsky, who was one of the first to raise an alarm about the recent spike at Chornobyl, said he’s concerned that radioactive dust from the site could spread across the continent.

“The most dangerous thing is that they can bring radioactive particles in their hair, in their clothes and their boots,” he says………………………

Nuclear Plant Captured

Chornobyl isn’t the only concern. Ukraine’s active nuclear-power facilities are also at risk.

On March 4, Russian forces captured Europe’s largest active nuclear-power plant, Zaporizhzhia, located in southeastern Ukraine. During intense fighting one of the site’s buildings caught fire, but didn’t harm the plant’s six reactors, and no radiation was released.

Ukrainian technicians continue to monitor Zaporizhzhia, but the country’s regulators have claimed that Rosatom, Russia’s state nuclear power company, has engineers at the plant who are giving orders to staff. Further, Ukraine reports that plant management actions require approval from the Russian commander, according to the IAEA.

“Who is now in charge of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant?” asks Ozharovsky. “The Russian army is around, but armies aren’t nuclear engineers.”

Rosatom released a statement on March 12 and denied that they’re managing the operation of Zaporizhzhia. They characterized their staff’s presence at the plant as “consultative assistance” that takes place “on a regular basis.”

Grossi expressed “deep concern” about the situation in a statement last month.

Further Threats

Since then, there’s been more reason for alarm.

On April 16, three missiles flew over the South Ukrainian nuclear power plant, Yuzhnoukrainsk, according to Energoatom, Ukraine’s state-run nuclear power company.

Then on April 26 Energoatom reported that two cruise missiles flew over the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.

The flight of missiles at low altitudes directly above the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant site, where 7 nuclear facilities with a huge amount of nuclear material are located, poses huge risks,” says Petro Kotin, Energoatom’s acting president, in a statement released on the company’s Telegram channel. “After all, missiles can hit one or more nuclear facilities, and this threatens a nuclear and radiation catastrophe around the world.”

The day before, Energoatom reported that Russia fired missiles over the cooling pond of the Khmelnytskyi Nuclear Power Plant in northwest Ukraine

Kosharna wrote in an email that if a missile would’ve hit one of the plants the consequences wwould have been “catastrophic” for the world.

Typically nuclear plants use back-up generators to maintain power with a grid disruption and keep the cooling systems functioning normally. In wartime fuel shortages are common, and this risks the stability of the generators. Ukraine’s current shortage is only getting worse, according to the Gas Transmission Operator of Ukraine, a gas pipeline operator

If the grid goes down and the generators are out of fuel and the cooling systems fail, there’s a last resort to prevent radiation from spreading. Containment structures around the reactors are designed to block any release of radiation, but they’re also vulnerable to missile attacks.

Reactor failure isn’t the only significant risk to the operation.

Staff operating facilities under extreme stress also poses a problem, Ozharovsky says, because any mistake they make on the job could be calamitous..

There are also other onsite dangers. Spent nuclear fuel storage pools that are a part of the waste-disposal system contain radioactive material. If they’re damaged the liquid could be released from containment, causing a massive spread of radiation. Japanese scientists considered this to be the “worst-case scenario” of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, which had a series of meltdowns after a tsunami struck the plant in 2011.

Ozharovsky said he doesn’t believe the Russian military would deliberately sabotage one of Ukraine’s nuclear power plants because it would threaten their interests. But he added that even the possibility that the nuclear power plants could be harmed accidentally should trigger worldwide alarm.

“For me it’s scary,” he says. “All the other nuclear power plants, like Khmelnytskyi, like Rivne, like South Ukraine (Yuzhnoukrainsk); they can be damaged during this war. And the international community needs to take care of that.”

Any attack on a nuclear plant is a breach of international humanitarian law. The Geneva Convention’s Article 56 considers attacking a nuclear power plant a war crime.

“I hope that many other countries who still have nuclear energy on their territory will rethink physical safety, military safety,” Ozharovsky says. “That’s a challenge no one country can solve.”   https://therevelator.org/ukraine-war-nuclear-power/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ukraine-war-nuclear-power

May 3, 2022 Posted by | safety, Ukraine | Leave a comment

Safety concerns about NuScam’s much touted ”small nuclear reactor”

U.S. nuclear power agency seeks staff documentation of NuScale’s quake protection,   By Timothy Gardner,   WASHINGTON, April 27 (Reuters) – An official with the U.S. nuclear power regulator has ordered staff to supply documents that could lead to a review of a 2020 approval of a new type of nuclear power reactor after an engineer raised concerns about its ability to withstand earthquakes, documents showed on Wednesday. Reporting by Timothy Gardner; Editing by Chris Reese, Kenneth Maxwell and Lisa Shumaker .

 Dan Dorman, the executive director for operations at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), reviewed a complaint by John Ma, an engineer at the agency, about its approval of the design of NuScale’s nuclear power plant.

NuScale, majority owned by construction and engineering company Fluor Corp (FLR.N), which got approval for the design of a 50-megwatt small modular reactor (SMR), is hoping to build the Carbon Free Power Project with multiple reactors at the Idaho National Laboratory, with the first coming online in 2029 and full plant operation in 2030.

Some see SMRs such as NuScale’s as a way to cut emissions from fossil fuels and to potentially reduce Europe’s dependency on Russian oil and gas. NuScale also wants to build the plants in Poland and Kazakhstan.

In an internal document Ma wrote to NRC officials soon after the 2020 approval, he alleged the design of the building intended to enclose the reactor units and its spent fuel pool did not provide assurance it could withstand the largest earthquake considered without collapsing and may be vulnerable to smaller earthquakes.

“Collapse of the reactor building … could potentially cause an early and large release of radioactive materials into the atmosphere and ground, which could kill people,” Ma wrote.

In February, Dorman wrote to Ma that he concluded the NRC’s basis for accepting NuScale’s measure of strength for the reactor’s building design “was not sufficiently documented,” documents posted on the NRC website on Wednesday showed.

Dorman ordered the agency’s Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation to document its evaluation of NuScale’s “stress averaging approach” and, if necessary, to update the application and evaluate whether there are “any impacts” to the 2020 design approval.

It was uncertain whether the additional actions would affect the project’s timeline which has been delayed several times………….

A science advocacy group said the concerns Ma raised were troubling.

“NuScale’s business case is based on its assertion that it is a safer nuclear reactor. Now it’s time to prove it by addressing these safety concerns,” said Edwin Lyman, director of nuclear power safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists.   https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-nuclear-power-regulator-seeks-documents-nuscales-protection-against-quakes-2022-04-27/

April 30, 2022 Posted by | safety, Small Modular Nuclear Reactors, USA | Leave a comment

Huge solar storm once almost triggered nuclear war between USA and Russia

ED BROWNE , NewsWeek 29 Apr 22, ON 4/29/22  In May 1967, a solar storm brought the world to the brink of what could have been a nuclear war. With the sun now entering a period of increased activity as part of its 11-year solar cycle, experts have discussed whether or not we should be wary of a second such incident.

The world was in the grips of the Cold War in 1967 when the sun belched out one of the largest solar storms ever observed at the time, releasing a colossal radio burst that interfered with communication services here on Earth………………………  https://www.newsweek.com/sun-nuclear-cold-war-1967-repeated-possible-solar-flare-1702239

April 30, 2022 Posted by | 2 WORLD, incidents | Leave a comment

Russia’s Antiquated Nuclear Warning System Jeopardizes Us All

As the war in Ukraine’s pits Russia against the West, it’s time to look at Moscow’s weak satellite systems, which raise the chances of nuclear conflict. by David K. Shipler

Since Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a heightened nuclear alert level, much of the world has worried that he might go nuclear in his war against Ukraine. But there is another concern: a false alarm from Russian early-warning systems, which experts believe are dangerously vulnerable to errors.

The risk of a catastrophic mistake has been a threat since the outset of the nuclear age, but miscalculation becomes more likely in a period of heightened Russian-American tension. Leaders would have only minutes to make fateful decisions, so each side needs to be able to “see” clearly whether the other has launched missiles before retaliating. Ambiguity in a moment of “crisis perception,” the Rand Corporation has noted, can spark “conflict when one nation misinterprets an event (such as a training exercise, a weather phenomenon, or a malfunction) as an indicator of a nuclear attack.”     

Russia and the United States are the most heavily armed of the nine nuclear powers, which include China, France, the United Kingdom, North Korea, Pakistan, India, and Israel. (Iran is poised to join the club.) But only the U.S. has comprehensive surveillance of the globe, provided by three active geosynchronous satellites, with two in reserve, whose infrared receptors can spot missile plumes. That data is supplemented by radar, which gives the U.S. the capacity to double-check that a launch has actually occurred.

Specialists call this verification by both satellite and radar “dual phenomenology.” The Russians don’t have it, at least not reliably. They lack adequate space-based monitoring to supplement their radar.

What they have is a “terrible and dangerous technology shortfall,” according to Theodore Postol, a professor of science, technology, and national security policy at MIT and a former scientific adviser to the chief of naval operations……………………… https://washingtonmonthly.com/2022/04/29/russias-antiquated-nuclear-warning-system-jeopardizes-us-all/

     

April 30, 2022 Posted by | Russia, safety | Leave a comment

International Atomic Energy Agency very concerned at dangers at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear complex.

Atomic agency: Danger signs at ‘occupied’ nuclear site in Ukraine

Rafael Grossi tells AP the Zaporizhzhia facility requires repairs and the current situation there is ‘not sustainable’.  Aljazeera, 

The International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) director-general says the level of safety at Europe’s largest nuclear plant, which is currently under Russian military occupation in Ukraine, is like a “red light blinking” as his organisation tries in vain to gain access to the site.

Rafael Grossi said that the IAEA needs access to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine so its inspectors can, among other things, reestablish the site’s connections with the Vienna-based headquarters of the UN agency.

Ukraine’s 15 nuclear reactors gives it one of the largest nuclear power capacities in the world, and Russia’s invasion has essentially turned parts of country into a nuclear minefield.

Again and again since the invasion, nuclear experts have watched in alarm as Russian forces have come uncomfortably close to multiple nuclear plants in Ukraine.

Grossi said the Zaporizhzhia plant requires repairs.

“There are two units that are active, in active operation … others that are in repairs or in cool down. And there are some activities, technical activities and also inspection activities that need to be performed,” Grossi said.

“So the situation as I have described it, and I would repeat it today, is not sustainable as it is,” he said.

“So this is a pending issue. This is a red light blinking.”…………

The IAEA chief said he is continuing to press Russia’s government for access to the Zaporizhzhia plant………

“There cannot be any military action in or around a nuclear power plant,” Grossi said, adding that he has appealed to Russia about this.

“This is unprecedented to have a war unfolding amidst one of the world’s largest nuclear infrastructures, which, of course, makes for a number of fragile or weak points that could be, of course, exploited wittingly or unwittingly,” he added.

“So this requires a lot of activity on our side and cooperation. Cooperation from the Russian side. Understanding from the Ukrainian side so that we can avoid an accident.”…………..

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, along with US and European support for Ukraine in the conflict, have increased tensions between Russia and the West, but it’s “imperative for us to look for common denominators in spite of these difficulties”, Grossi said.

“We cannot afford to stop. We have to continue. It’s in the world’s interest,” he said of global nuclear safety.  https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/4/27/un-nuke-chief-wants-ukraine-zaporizhzhia-plant

April 28, 2022 Posted by | safety, Ukraine | Leave a comment

The 1983 Military Drill That Nearly Sparked Nuclear War With the Soviets

Fearful that the Able Archer 83 exercise was a cover for a NATO nuclear strike, the U.S.S.R. readied its own weapons for launch

Smithsonian, Francine Uenuma, History CorrespondentApril 27, 2022  In November 1983, during a particularly tense period in the Cold War, Soviet observers spotted planes carrying what appeared to be warheads taxiing out of their NATO hangars. Shortly after, command centers for the NATO military alliance exchanged a flurry of communication, and, after receiving reports that their Soviet adversaries had used chemical weapons, the United States decided to intensify readiness to DEFCON 1—the highest of the nuclear threat categories, surpassing the DEFCON 2 alert declared at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis two decades prior. Concerned about a preemptive strike, Soviet forces prepared their nuclear weapons for launch.

There was just one problem. None of the NATO escalation was real—at least, not in the minds of the Western forces participating in the Able Archer 83 war game.

A variation of an annual military training exercise, the scenario started with a change in Soviet leadership, heightened proxy rivalries and the Soviets’ invasion of several European countries. Lasting five days, it culminated in NATO resorting to the use of nuclear weapons. Soviet intelligence watched the event with special interest, suspicious that the U.S. might carry out a nuclear strike under the guise of a drill. The realism of Able Archer was ironically effective: It was designed to simulate the start of a nuclear war, and many argue that it almost did.

“In response to this exercise, the Soviets readied their forces, including their nuclear forces, in a way that scared NATO decision makers eventually all the way up to President [Ronald] Reagan,” says Nate Jones, author of Able Archer 83: The Secret History of the NATO Exercise That Almost Triggered Nuclear War and a senior fellow at the National Security Archive.

Perhaps most concerning is that the danger was largely unknown and overlooked, both during the exercise and throughout that precarious year, when changes in leadership and an acceleration in the nuclear arms race ratcheted up tensions between the two superpowers. A since-declassified 1990 report by the President’s Foreign Intelligence Review Board (PFIAB) concluded, “In 1983 we may have inadvertently placed our relations with the Soviet Union on a hair trigger.”

Almost 40 years later, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has evoked comparisons with the Cold War, particularly when it comes to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s vaguely worded threats. At the onset of the war, Putin warned of “consequences you have never seen”—a declaration interpreted in some quarters as a nod to his country’s nuclear capabilities. More recently, U.S. President Joe Biden’s announcement of new weapons for Ukraine elicited an admonition from Moscow about “unpredictable consequences.” Biden has declined to send American troops and cautioned that “direct confrontation between NATO and Russia is World War III.”………………………………………

The Cold War is now three decades in the rearview mirror, and the invasion of Ukraine is a far cry from a fictional exercise. But while history doesn’t necessarily repeat itself, it does mutate—and once again, nuclear-tinged rhetoric is making headlines.

Geist considers the nuclear threat low risk at present but acknowledges that the mere specter of it still carries great influence. “It’s framing what is considered possible for basically all … foreign governments, including our own,” he says. “The idea of direct intervention would be much more seriously considered against a non-nuclear power.”

Common to this or any other chapter of the post-World War II nuclear world is the fact that no nuclear threat, whether vague or explicit, comes without a degree of risk. As Jones point out, “The danger of brinksmanship”—a foreign policy practice that pushes parties to the edge of confrontation—“is it’s easier than we think for one side to fall into the brink.”   https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-1983-military-drill-that-nearly-sparked-nuclear-war-with-the-soviets-180979980/

April 28, 2022 Posted by | incidents, weapons and war | Leave a comment

International Chernobyl Disaster Remembrance Day

International Chernobyl Disaster Remembrance Day Date in the current year: April 26, 2022  

Until recently, Memorial Day for the Victims of the Chernobyl Nuclear Accident was observed only in the countries directly affected by the accident (Ukraine, Belarus and Russia). This changed in 2016, when the United Nations General Assembly designated April 26 as International Chernobyl Disaster Remembrance Day

The Chernobyl accident, also referred to as the Chernobyl disaster, was a catastrophic nuclear accident that occurred in Ukraine (then the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic). On April 26, 1986, Reactor No. 4 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant was completely destroyed by an explosion caused by a catastrophic power increase. The explosion resulted in radioactive contamination of large parts of the USSR, now the territories of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. Over 8 million people in these countries were exposed to radiation.

Four years passed after the accident before the Soviet government reluctantly acknowledged the need for international assistance in mitigating the consequences of the disaster. In 1990, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution that called for international cooperation in overcoming the consequences of the Chernobyl accident.

Since 2002, the main focus of the Chernobyl strategy has been a long-term developmental approach instead of emergency humanitarian assistance. In 2009, the International Chernobyl Research and Information Network was launched to provide support to programs that aim to contribute to the sustainable development of affected territories.

International Chernobyl Disaster Remembrance Day was inaugurated in 2016 to raise awareness of the consequences of the accident and to consolidate efforts to eliminate them. In Ukraine, it is one of the official remembrance days marked by memorial ceremonies and special lessons at schools. In addition, Ukraine observes Chernobyl Liquidators Day on December 14.

April 26, 2022 Posted by | 2 WORLD, incidents | 1 Comment

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