DISINFO: Dangerous experiments of Americans in Chernobyl worse than fires
SUMMARY
The wildfires lasted more than a week in the Chernobyl (exclusion) zone. However, it’s not the worst trouble in that region. The Chernobyl nuclear power plant found itself in difficult conditions because it lost contact with Russian specialists, the opportunity to buy Russian fuel and equipment. But the main danger is in the experiments conducted at the station by Americans. Westinghouse is trying to get into Ukrainian reactors. They already got into Czechoslovakia, the situation at the Czech station almost ended up in a catastrophe after the Americans began to supply their equipment. Something similar is now happening in Ukraine. This is very dangerous. Much more dangerous than fire. Although fires are also bad.
RESPONSE
One of the Kremlin's disinformation narratives about a possible "new Chornobyl" in Ukraine, the accusation of Westinghouse and so-called experiments of the West in Ukrainian nuclear plants. In 2005, Ukrainian Energoatom and the US company Holtec International signed a contract for the construction of spent fuel storage. There was no such storage facility, and the country was forced to spend 200 million dollars annually for services for the export and processing of spent nuclear fuel to Russia. Construction began in 2017. According to the contract, Holtec International will supply special equipment for dry storage of spent nuclear fuel and its transportation, and will also provide Ukraine with technologies that will be applied at its nuclear power plants and also during the transportation of spent nuclear fuel from the plants to this storage. At the same time, Holtec International has built a storage facility exclusively for the fuel of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant. The “cold” tests, on simulators, ended in autumn 2019, “hot” tests were scheduled to start soon, with real fuel, which will begin to be transported from the old storage to the new one. “We are absolutely sure that the storage is completely safe and ready for operation,” VOA quoted American engineer Michael Pence. “We applied the same technology that we use in the USA. In fact, we have even enhanced safety thanks to the double-walled containers. In the USA, they are single-walled, and here they are double-walled," he said. Westinghouse currently supplies fuel to six of Ukraine's 15 nuclear reactors, and this will increase to seven from 2021. The nuclear fuel is manufactured at the Westinghouse fuel fabrication facility in Västerås, Sweden. The claims about the dangerousness of usage of the Westinghouse's fuel are constant from the Russian side since Ukraine decided to use fuel of other countries on its nuclear plants. The fires in the middle of April in the Chornobyl zone did not damage the Chornobyl nuclear power plant, and there are no concerns about the state of nuclear and radiation safety of the plant.