An aircraft-type drone crashed and detonated in the Russian town of Kurchatov on Friday just a few kilometers from the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant (NPP). Earlier, in April, another drone attack on the plant by was repelled by Russia's air defenses.
In August 2022, Ukrainian saboteurs carried out at least three terrorist attacks against the Kursk NPP and blew up six towers of high-voltage power lines (110, 330 and 750 kV), through which the nuclear power plant supplies energy to industrial, transport, life support, and social infrastructure of the region, as per the Federal Security Service (FSB).
Similarly, the FSB prevented a terrorist plot by a sabotage group of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine that planned to blast more than 30 power transmission towers of high-voltage power lines of the Leningrad and Kalinin Nuclear Power Plants (NPP) in May 2023.
"I must say that attacking nuclear power stations with missiles and explosives is the height of lunacy and moral irresponsibility," Dr. Christopher Busby, physical chemist and scientific secretary of the European Committee on Radiation Risk, told Sputnik. "Such behavior must be of concern to all in Europe, and indeed the world. We know, from Chernobyl, what the outcome can be. How can anyone want to create another such disaster?"
Why Ukraine's Attack May Result in Chernobyl 2.0
As per Busby, the Kursk NPP has some similarity with the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant: in particular, has three Chernobyl-type RBMK graphite moderated direct steam-producing reactors of about 1000MW, each making a total electrical output of about 3000MW. The Kursk NPP is one of the three largest nuclear power stations in Russia.
"So, this is a Chernobyl-equivalent reactor system and if any of the reactors or their cooling water systems is destroyed we could see an exact copy of the Chernobyl meltdown and nuclear explosion," the scientist said.
The Chernobyl disaster occurred on April 26, 1986, at the fourth reactor in the Chernobyl NPP located at the settlement of Pripyat, 16 km northwest of the city of Chernobyl, the Ukrainian SSR. The resulting explosion and fire in the graphite reactor core released large amounts of radioactive material into the atmosphere, with the contamination reaching Europe. On April 28 Swedish monitoring stations recorded high levels of wind-transported radioactivity.
As such, a potential disaster at the Kursk NPP could result in substantial contamination of Russia, Ukraine and Europe, Busby warned.
"Such an event would heavily contaminate the region around 50 km radius and also, like Chernobyl, contaminate Europe, with differences in various countries dependent on the weather conditions," the physical chemist said. "So, the results would go beyond Russia. Kiev is about 300 km to the southwest and should the wind direction be northeasterly, it would be significantly contaminated. We must recall that radioactive contamination caused increases in child leukemia and other cancer in Wales and Scotland, some 1,800 miles away, and increased breast cancer rates in Sweden, as I know from studies I have personally carried out and published in scientific journals and at conferences including a World Health Organization (WHO) conference in Kiev in 2000."
Busby warned that nuclear contamination in the result of a potential sabotage against the Kursk NPP would also affect agriculture, "making produce from the 200 km region or further around the site harmful to health and thus not exportable."
"In addition to attacks making the cooling systems to the plant fail (including destroying electrical inputs to the site) there is also the dangerous possibility that spent fuel cooling ponds might be attacked and fail, leading to similar disastrous consequences," the scientist highlighted.
Attacks on Zaporozhye NPP and Kakhovka Dam
Apart from targeting nuclear power plants in mainland Russia, the Ukrainian military is continuing to shell the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant in the region that joined Russia in 2022. In May, International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi proposed a five-point plan to help ensure safety and security at the Zaporozhye NPP.
Speaking to Sputnik at the time, Busby noted nuclear power plants are "effectively a controlled nuclear bomb." He warned that the radioactive fallout from a possible disaster at the Zaporozhye NPP would "make Europe pretty much uninhabitable."
The Ukrainian forces' attack on the dam of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant (HPP) on June 6 also posed a nuclear risk, given that water from the Kakhovka reservoir is used to cool the Zaporozhye NPP's six reactors and spent fuel storage, according to the scientist.
West's Silence Could Translate Into 'Mad Max Reality' for Europe
At the time, Busby lamented the fact that the West demonstrates an unwillingness to hold the Kiev regime responsible for these irresponsible actions which could backfire on the European population, heightening the risk of health problems and early deaths.
In his previous interviews with Sputnik, Busby also condemned the UK's decision to arm the Ukrainian Army with depleted uranium ammunition. He referred to a subsequent huge explosion in the Western Ukrainian town of Khmelnitsky in May resulting in nothing short of a radioactive cloud.
The renowned nuclear expert has repeatedly warned both Kiev and the West that their gamble with nuclear power would end in nothing short of "Mad Max reality" for Europe.