Ukraine Invasion - Please do not post videos showing attacks/similar

Status
Not open for further replies.
Statement from Zelensky's office

The Russians will be responsible for the deprivation of drinking water for people in the south of the Kherson region and in the temporarily occupied Crimea, as well as for the destruction of part of the population centers and the biosphere. These actions also pose a threat to the ZNPP. The government is working, both central and regional. People's safety is a priority today. We must ensure punishment for the enemy at the international level
 
Last edited:
the Russians might use this humanitarian disaster and potential nuclear disaster to call for international pressure for a cease fire - this can be a ruse to put an end to any offensive action in southern Ukraine and allows Russia and to hold onto territory it has
 
Last edited:
Grim5 said:
Russians saying ukranians blew it up

But I can't see why they would
Click to expand...

They would because it would flood the Russian defences. Actually, it's kinda genius - provided it was them and they have a way round it.

Oh, no, seems it was the Russians using it as a means of defence.
 
Last edited:
Rroff said:
The West will have to start caring a whole lot more if Russia grows into the war, which so far strangely they've made very little progress in doing.
Click to expand...
Politically it's hard for Putin to set Russia on a full war footing. He sold this thing to the public as a 'Special Military Operation' and it was expected going to be completed using the existing armed forces which on paper at least vastly out numbered and out teched Ukraine. You saw what happened when he announced the mobilizlsation when a million people fled the country.
 
Grim5 said:
Statement from Zelensky's office

The Russians will be responsible for the deprivation of drinking water for people in the south of the Kherson region and in the temporarily occupied Crimea, as well as for the destruction of part of the population centers and the biosphere. These actions also pose a threat to the ZNPP. The government is working, both central and regional. People's safety is a priority today. We must ensure punishment for the enemy at the international level
Click to expand...
This does seem like a bad move for Russia if they intend to keep Crimea and Zaporizhzhia, they've cut the water supply off - and one of their war reasons wa because Ukraine cut off the water to the canal to Crimea.
 
To be fair it wouldn't take a lot of effort to detonate whatever trap the Russians set when they evacuated the right bank of the Dnipro and whilst there's downsides for Ukraine the effect this has elsewhere isn't exactly positive for Russia. They now have to come to terms with having to plan for possible water shortages in Crimea as well as having to take pretty much all the flack for letting a nuclear reactor fail which could easily make Russian troops abandon their positions when they see their commanders legging it.
 
Last edited:
I_M_Weasel said:
Not from flooding, but it might have issues with it's water supply.
Click to expand...
Okay got that.

A quick Google =

In some nuclear reactors, water is used as a coolant. If this cooling mechanism fails, the temperature in the reactor core can rise dangerously high. The most dramatic such 'meltdown' was the Chernobyl disaster of 1986. Ironically, it began when engineers were testing aspects of the water-cooling system. A series of errors led to the unit overheating and destroying itself. The class of plant involved - called RBMK - is not used in the West.

If it's the same tech in use then that, this is a huge concern.
 
Nate75 said:
With admittedly a lack of knowledge on such things, is the power plant seriously at risk here?
Click to expand...
Cooling water is required for the steam cycle and for cooling the reactor. If the water level gets too low they will have to shut the plant down because they can't cool the steam cycle. Without knowing the details of the plant it is difficult to say if the reactor decay heat when it turns off is cooled by a separate system or with reservoir water. If it were cooled by reservoir water you'd want to get it shut down and cooled before you ran out of water. A wild ass guess would be they have closed system for decay heat and a once through system from the reservoir for the steam system. So once the level in reservoir drops too far the plant will be off but there won't be risk of a melt down.
 
Last edited:
.
Nate75 said:
Okay got that.

A quick Google =

In some nuclear reactors, water is used as a coolant. If this cooling mechanism fails, the temperature in the reactor core can rise dangerously high. The most dramatic such 'meltdown' was the Chernobyl disaster of 1986. Ironically, it began when engineers were testing aspects of the water-cooling system. A series of errors led to the unit overheating and destroying itself. The class of plant involved - called RBMK - is not used in the West.

If it's the same tech in use then that, this is a huge concern.
Click to expand...

a lot safer than Chernobyl, it's a PWR station. Wiki:
PWRs can passively scram the reactor in case offsite power is lost to immediately stop the primary nuclear reaction. The control rods are held by electromagnets and fall by gravity when current is lost; full insertion safely shuts down the primary nuclear reaction.
........
PWRs are the most deployed type of reactor globally, allowing for a wide range of suppliers of new plants and parts for existing plants. Due to long experience with their operation they are the closest thing to mature technology that exists in nuclear energy.
Click to expand...

I'm sure there's probably somebody here who knows a lot more about nuclear reactors who can flesh the situation out.
 
Last edited:
Nate75 said:
With admittedly a lack of knowledge on such things, is the power plant seriously at risk here?
Click to expand...
The station has an isolated reservoirs for cooling and spent fuel.
Only two (out of 6?) reactors are currently active, so it is not heating water much at this point.

The river is still next to it, albeit lower level, so if necessary reservoir could be topped up with pumps.
 
A PWR still needs to dissipate the decay heat of the reactor which can be 7-12% of the full load heat production. So 500MW unit at 40% efficiency is 1250MW thermal. Say 10% decay heat 125MW of decay heat you have to get rid of. That's a lot.

The power station in question is 960MWe so 2,400MW thermal at 7% 168MW thermal even when it's turned off.

So you need a lot of cooling a couple of tonnes of water per second at a guess. Fukushima meltdown was caused by decay heat, the reactor actually shut off safely before the tsumani arrived.

But it does have a large cooling pond and cooling towers so I imagine there is plenty of thermal capacity for cooling post shutdown.
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom