Nicolas Goldberg, energy expert at Colombus Consulting, explains on franceinfo on Friday afternoon March 4 that, if the reactors of the Zaporijia nuclear power plant in Ukraine are “very different from Chernobyl”the fact “To attack a nuclear power plant is serious, it is considered a war crime”.
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franceinfo: In what state is the Ukrainian nuclear fleet, in particular the Zaporijia power plant targeted by the Russians?
Nicholas Goldberg: It should be noted that these are very different reactors from Chernobyl. There are containment enclosures, pressurized water reactors which are closer to those we have on the French fleet. When I hear that we are potentially facing a new Chernobyl, when we just have a fire in an administrative building, I tell myself that we must put a little more perspective and rationality into all of this. We are in a communication war, we can over-react to emotion. As it is running and the Safety Authority in Ukraine has authorized them to be operated, there is no reason to think that this plant is in poor condition. I want to remind you that the reason for the nuclear accidents that we experienced, Chernobyl and Fukushima, was not that the nuclear reactors were old. Chernobyl was an almost new reactor, they wanted to do safety tests by removing the safety devices one by one, to finally realize that they were used for something.
If shots hit one of the reactors, what is the risk?
It’s hard to say. It depends on how the reactor is hit, if it’s flooded or not. There is still a good chance that what we are most at risk of is radioactive leaks and that the event is contained. If you take, for example, the Fukushima disaster, you have to remember that there was an earthquake that killed 20,000 people, and an evacuation zone around the plant before people could gradually return. There has been no excess cancer or radiation deaths around Fukushima.
What do these bombings on a nuclear power plant represent?
The UN will meet to decide on the facts at this plant. Attacking a nuclear power plant or a hydroelectric dam is considered a war crime. This is not a trivial event. If a reactor is hit, the consequences will be essentially local with an evacuation zone around it. On the other hand, what happened is serious, it could potentially be a war crime. The most powerful power station in the country is currently controlled by Russia: in times of war, controlling the access roads and the electricity supply can testify to a progressive takeover of the country. This is above all the great news with the taking of this plant.