Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Fire extinguished at Ukraine nuclear power plant, Europe's largest

reuters.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

211–220 of 894 posts

Re: Fire extinguished at Ukraine nuclear power plant, Europe's largest

#211

Post by dragonwriter »

lumost wrote: post #109
SomewhatLikely wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The radiation numbers look similar to Feb 26 based on Wayback machine's last crawl.

The best containment domes won't survive persistent shelling. I can't conceive of a valid reason for shelling a nuclear power plant.

> I can't conceive of a valid reason for shelling a nuclear power plant.

The classical excuse (see Operation Opera) is that it is part of an enemy weapons program from an enemy intent on nuking you. It would only be a small step from current propaganda for Russia to make this claim, having recently added the claim of an offensive Ukrainian nuke program to their propaganda.

Re: Fire extinguished at Ukraine nuclear power plant, Europe's largest

#212

Post by dang »

paxys wrote: post #155

Submission title makes it seem like it spontaneously caught fire. Could we change it to the article title please? > Ukrainian nuclear plant, Europe's largest, ablaze after Russian attack - minister

I've changed the title to the current title of the article now. It sounds like Reuters might have updated it?

Submitted title was "Europe's largest nuclear power plant on fire".

Re: Fire extinguished at Ukraine nuclear power plant, Europe's largest

#213

Post by anshumankmr »

Why not sign a pact saying "Nuclear Power Plants are Off Limits. Anyone caught messing around will be court martialled."

It's quite naive I know but if you make the consequences very clear and extremely bad for the troops, it might really deter them.

Or Russia is implementing a something similar to a scorch= the-earth policy.

Re: Fire extinguished at Ukraine nuclear power plant, Europe's largest

#214

Post by jquery »

dimitrios1 wrote: post #185
mwattsun wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was only 4 during the Cuban Missile crisis, but I've talked to people who remember it and this sounds a lot like it.

Unironically, it is exactly that crisis that is key to understanding Russias actions right now, as there are many similar parallels. That, plus the 2.5T barrels worth of shale that Chevron and Exxon prospected underneath the Crimean peninsula. If Russia really did go to war over securing some natural resources and a geopolitical strategic location, over a false pretense of something like liberation, it would sound so…

If we equate Saddam Hussein with Zelensky, then sure. I'm not so sure the parallels are actually there, though. Intelligence tells us Putin's actual reasons for invading ukraine have a lot more to do with restoring the glory of the Russian Empire. Putin's "denazification" and "liberation" rhetoric seems more like a bone thrown towards those who are fair-minded and want to believe in an equivalence between Putin and W. I get that impulse, but I also think the just world fallacy can take us to some strange places and drag us all down to hell. Sometimes people are just evil.

Re: Fire extinguished at Ukraine nuclear power plant, Europe's largest

#215

Post by ch4s3 »

Aeolun wrote: post #163
ch4s3 wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fortunately that kind of not a thing. Pulling fuel out of a reactor without special tools and training would 100% kill you, and trying to build a bomb with a fuel rod assuming you got it out would also kill you. Transporting that bomb without thick concrete or lead shielding would also kill you. Blowing it up would put a bunch of heavy dust in the air that would fall out quickly and could easily be washed off of anyo…

I think he is referring to (accidentaly) blowing up the plant in a Chernobyl’esqye kind of way.

If they destroy the containment buildings, which might take more than mortar fire then the reactor would probably SCRAM since it's a PWR. There might be a steam explosion, and maybe some localized radiation leak. Really heavy arial bombardment could, if it broke containment, spread fissile material around the immediate area, cause a huge fire, and throw some radioactive debris into the air. That would all be quite bad, but not Chernobyl bad.

Chernobyl was a graphite pile reactor with no containment building, and none of those exist anymore fortunately.

I should aadd that VVER's like the reactor in question have missile shields for precisely this reason, and a bunch of other passive features. It shouldn't explode.

2nd Edit: what I’m concerned about is artillery hitting spent fuel containment. I don’t know if they used hardened casks, or if they’re using pools that might be in a less hardened building. Whoever is shelling this thing is insane, or very stupid.

Re: Fire extinguished at Ukraine nuclear power plant, Europe's largest

#217

Post by sobriquet9 »

arbuge wrote: post #141
Gustomaximus wrote: post #12

Live stream from plant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYUT36YGOh8 Automated Radiation Monitoring system: https://www.npp.zp.ua/en/safety/arms

CNN's homepage currently has video of the Russian shells impacting the plant, shot from the same camera doing that live stream. Extremely unsettling.

Those look like flares, not shells. Still a fire hazard, but less destructive.

Re: Fire extinguished at Ukraine nuclear power plant, Europe's largest

#218

Post by joshuajill »

dsabanin wrote: post #150
doener wrote: post #98

Firefighter have access now: https://twitter.com/bnonews/status/1499555239351005194?s=21 https://twitter.com/nexta_tv/status/1499555095817728023?s=21 "According to Andrey Tuz, spokesman of the press service of the nuclear power plant, there is no threat of radiation spread."

And now Russian forces have entered the building and are fighting inside.

Apparently Ukrainians have surrendered now.

What a nerve wrecking situation. In the heat of the moment deciding when is the right time to surrender. Probably the smartest decision of the day.

Re: Fire extinguished at Ukraine nuclear power plant, Europe's largest

#220

Post by purple_ferret »

HL33tibCe7 wrote: post #148
Thaxll wrote: post #131

One can wonder what does it takes for the west to military intervene. Sanctions are a long term plan but it won't save Ukraine.

The risks of nuclear war from a NATO militarily intervention are far too high to even consider it. I’m sorry to say, but there is really nothing that could happen in Ukraine that would be bad enough for us to accept the risk of nuclear annihilation.

What would be the difference if Putin invaded a NATO state and NATO was forced to defend? What would be the difference if he starts losing the war and needs to kick it up a notch? Is there any less chance he'd use nukes? Serious question. Threatening nukes is a rational move. Actually using them is not.
Post reply on HN