Геохімія техногенезу (Oct 2022)
GLOBAL NUCLEAR THREATS CAUSED BY RUSSIA’S INVASION OF UKRAINE (AT THE PLACE OF FOREWORD)
Abstract
The four-month experience of russia’s invasion of Ukraine has already shown the failure of the world security system, primarily the system of nuclear safety and security. And although this is a future subject of research for decades, preliminary conclusions and urgent issues can already be drawn today. Ukraine is a nuclear state having most of constituents of the nuclear fuel cycle. Half of the electricity produced in Ukraine comes from nuclear power plants. During the wartime russian troops permanently bombarded, shelled and occupied nuclear facilities in Ukraine. The largest in Europe Zaporizhzhia NPP and the most worldwide dangerous radioactive contaminated Chornobyl Exclusion Zone were occupied in the very beginning of the russia’s invasion. Russia’s nuclear terrorism led to the radioactive contamination of the atmosphere, fire at the nuclear facilities sites and within radioactive contaminated areas. From all sources of man-made radioactivity, the main amount of artificial radioisotopes (more than 90 %) is concentrated in the spent nuclear fuel (SNF). SNF “wet” and “dry” storage facilities built from concrete are considerably more vulnerable than nuclear reactors designed to withstand high pressure, aircraft, and ballistic missile hits. The amount of radioactivity in SNF facilities in Chornobyl and Energodar corresponds to about 1,000,000 nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima. Russia’s terrorists and looters do not need to fire nuclear missiles. A radioactive cloud that could form from the thousands of Chornobyl emissions released from occupied SNF facilities may destroy the Earth’s Biosphere. The international organizations aimed to provide security for nuclear facilities in wartime were impotent to fulfill statutory functions. The modern system of military defense in the World is not able to provide Global Safety and Security. To prevent the global nuclear catastrophe the system of nuclear safety and security requires cardinal overhaul by urgent solution of a number of engineering, technical, environmental and socio-political problems.
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