Chernobyl protective shield can no longer confine radiation after drone strike, UN nuclear watchdog says

4 comments

1. I refuse to agree to CNN’s terms (because I haven’t read them and won’t read them), what’s the summary.

   Preliminary take before reading is that sucks, but the radiation risk from Chernobyl has always been way overblown. The real nasty fast decaying stuff has been gone for decades, the plant’s other reactors even kept running all the way into 2000.

   If it’s a shield blocking the radiation itself, absolutely no worries. Most of the radiation can’t travel very far through most materials, and will get blocked by something, or even the air itself, before hitting anything important. If it’s containment for radioactive dust, it’s a bigger deal, but not catastrophic.

2. No need to worry yourself too much. The NSC is actually more of a deconstruction facility than an actual active confinement of radiation. It a confinement in the case of a catastrophic collapse of the old Object Shelter (or sarcophagus) inside which could in theory eject contaminated dust particles into the atmosphere. The old sarcophagus was always meant to be temporary and it had huge holes in it by design so there’s that.

3. Don’t worry, the Russian propagandists will tell you that radiation poisoning is an acceptable risk to steal Ukrainian land. And the people who tooooooooooootally aren’t Russian propagandists will say that they were forced to do it out of a need for “warm water ports”. They would also like you to know that Putin is particularly sexy and relatable, and NOT responsible for assassinating any of his political rivals.

4. >The confinement facility “lost its primary safety functions” **after a Russian drone strike in February**

   Oh yeah *that* drone strike. Interesting that when Ukraine is doing poorly it’s suddenly an issue again, even though it only made a tiny hole in an outer layer. Crank up the headlines for any Ukrainian news to distract from the battlefield catastrophe that’s happening as we speak.

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