I fear that tomorrow or Thursday we will witness the largest #nuclear disaster the world has ever seen.

The #Kremlin has repeated today that it expects that #Ukraine will blow up the #Zaporizhzhia #npp. That is of course Russia-speak for the fact that they are planning to do this themselves and blame Ukraine.

When the enormous disaster at #Chernobyl happened, it involved only one reactor. The nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia has six reactors. If #Russia decides to blow up all six, it would be one of the biggest disasters the world has ever seen.

I truly hope that I am wrong and there are reasons for Russia not to do this. Mainly that the #fallout would spread to Russia itself (as well as the occupied Ukrainian territories that it has now illegally annexed), it would expose Russian soldiers to radiation poisoning and it would serve little tactical purpose.

But this is Russia. They have consistently done things during this war that made little sense, from starting the invasion in the first place to blowing up the dam at Nova Kakhovna, which left #Crimea without its main source of drinking water. So, blowing up the largest nuclear power plant in Ukraine is not at all unthinkable, especially now that Russia is losing this war.

@A_Dommerholt Let's hope for everyone's sake that your fears are unfounded.
@jezbers It isn't often that I hope that I am so wrong that I will look stupid in hindsight. But I do hope that now.
@A_Dommerholt
The West needs giant fans to blow the fallout East. Silly, right?
Yet, as silly as it may sound, let's face it: if the Russians knew the West was equipped with such fans, there would be no explosion. Not tomorrow. Not the day after.
@A_Dommerholt that is a truly terrifying and terrible prospect and if it were to happen I hope and pray that there would not be a single country in the world that would allow Russia to get away without accountability. Ejection from the UN Security Council would be a good first start.
@chris @A_Dommerholt there must be serious, generational, consequences for committing such an act
@Lazarou @A_Dommerholt absolutely. As an act of war, not even the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki would come close given the long term contamination and impact over such vast distances including potentially Russia's own citizens.

@A_Dommerholt

Russians put items similar to explosive charges on two of six ZNPP units

According to the military, their detonation should not damage the power units, but it may create an image of a shelling by Ukrainian forces.

https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2023/07/4/7409846/

Russians put items similar to explosive charges on two of six ZNPP units

Ukrainska Pravda
@Sikorsky78 @A_Dommerholt I agree. I think this is intended as a pretense to sell the war effort at home. But then.. look how well their dam sabotage went. Russia claims that was an oops —Too much oomph applied at just the right spot. Doesn’t bode well for the competence of their fake news manufacturing force.
@A_Dommerholt How much potassium iodine is stockpiled and how will it be distributed in an emergency? What is the backup plan? With table salt only readily available source of iodine, some may consume it and suffer poisoning or death. What can be done to prevent this? What lessons have been learnt from Fukushima? How to combat nefarious misinformation?
@A_Dommerholt 100% It amazes me that people who have not been involved in this infowar/war with russia still think that russia has ANY credibility. They are state sponsored liars, thieves, and murders. And I mean that in the most literal sense possible. People think it's more complex. It's not. They're not sophisticated. If you let them, they will murder you, and steal your stuff. Period. It's WHAT they do. Look at VERY smaller country around russia... It's WHAT THEY DO.