Russia’s attack on a nuclear power plant has revived the fears of people across Europe who remember the Chernobyl disaster. The U.N. nuclear energy watchdog said no radiation was released, but that did little to ease growing concerns in Western Europe.
“I didn’t really sleep last night,” said Paul Dorfman, who led the European Environment Agency’s response to Chernobyl and was glued to the news from Ukraine on his phone. “The fact is that when things go really wrong with nuclear, you can begin to write off a lot of people’s lives.’’
The initial explosion killed two plant workers, and 28 others died within the next three months. By 2005, more than 6,000 thyroid cancers were reported among children and adolescents in the affected area, many of which were most likely caused by radiation, according to a report from the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Radiation.
While a Chernobyl-type event is unlikely, the containment vessel isn’t designed to withstand explosive ordinance such as artillery shells, said Robin Grimes, a professor of materials science at Imperial College London. Among them was Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida who called the attack on Zaporizhzhia an “unforgivable reckless act.”
Together the reactors generate about half of the country’s electricity. That share is expected to grow until at least 2035, because Ukraine sees nuclear power as the most cost-effective source of low-carbon energy, according to the IAEA. Rosie Fisher, 42, a climate scientist who lives in Oslo, Norway, said she was startled when her 5-year-old brought a consent form home from kindergarten asking whether the school could give him iodine tablets in the event of a nuclear accident.
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