Denis Pushilin, a pro-separatist leader in southeast Ukraine, has said the Ukraine faces a ‘second Chornobyl’ due to Ukraine’s decision to use nuclear fuel supplied by Westinghouse for its Soviet-built nuclear power plants. He said radiation has increased to 14 times the acceptable norm at the Zaporizhia nuclear plant. This is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, and the fifth largest in the world. The Russian news agency Interfax reported that in a statement on December 28, Pushilin said Ukraine faces “a second Chornobyl” due to Kyiv’s decision to use nuclear fuel supplied by Westinghouse — a reference to the deadly 1986 nuclear power plant accident that spead radioactivity over parts of Europe. Pushilin said that “currently the level of radiation is 14 times higher than the acceptable norm” in the area around the Zaporizhzhya plant and that the problem started November 28 “after an unsuccessful attempt to replace rods in the Russian-made third block (reactor) with the product of the American company Western house.” According to authorities, Unit 3 of the Zaporizhia plant suffered a short circuit on Nov. 28, and theis reactor was shut down for a week. Pushilin alleges that the reason for the shutdown was the unsuccessful replacement of Russian-made fuel rods with Westinghouse fuel rods. Today a story came out on a Russian website, documenting a report by Ukrainian emergency services that radiation had increased to 16.8 times the acceptable norm.
Read more about ‘Second Chernobyl’ may be underway in Ukraine.
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