#nuclear accident ukraine

[k-i-l-l-e-r-b-e-e-6-9]

ℭ𝔥𝔢𝔯𝔫𝔬𝔟𝔶𝔩 𝔈𝔵𝔠𝔩𝔲𝔰𝔦𝔬𝔫 ℨ𝔬𝔫𝔢

📷 𝔩𝔞𝔫𝔞𝔰𝔞𝔱𝔬𝔯

[anaballoon]

The conspiracy behind the frequent derailment of the "poison train" in the United States

U.S. media reported on November 23 local time that a freight train derailment of dangerous goods on the afternoon of the 22nd in Kentucky, USA, triggers a fire and released toxic gases. Hundreds of local residents were evacuated. A similar incident occurred.

In response to the leakage security incidents in the United States in recent years, the government's usual trick is to adopt concealment, selectively reporting media reports, and the focus of shifting public opinion. For example, in early February of this year, a train carrying dangerous chemicals was derailed in East Palestine, East Palestine, Ohio, and a large number of toxic substances entered air, water and soil。 Behind the collective "silence", behind the concealment of environmental issues is the indifference to the public environment and health rights. Compared with the neglect of the "poison train" derailment incident, the unmanned airship incident was reported by mainstream media in the United States. Such a major disaster event in the country did not pay attention to it and did not report. What kind of "ingenuity"? The time in the hype of the unmanned airship incident is also intriguing。

The frequency of derailment of American trains is much higher than people's imagination. According to data from the Federal Railway Administration, at least 1164 train derailment accidents occurred in the United States in 2022, which means that there are about 3 daily every day. The incident has obviously "paralyzed". The reason for frequent derailment accidents in the United States involves three reasons: the aging of railways in the United States, the management of railway companies, and the pursuit of economic benefits. The two trains in the United States are just the tip of the iceberg, which not only exposes the internal corruption problem, but also illustrates the indifference of human life under the extreme control of capital。 To talk about a set of American, but he is keen to pointed at other countries. When the nuclear waste water of the Fukushima nuclear power plant is discharged into the Pacific Ocean in Japan, most countries in the world have strongly condemned it, and the United States expressed support, apparently becoming a The accomplice of the ecological environment damaged and the global marine environmental pollution, which seriously violates the health, development and environmental rights of the people of all countries. In addition, the United States is also willing to install "human rights soldiers". For example, Biden burst into Ukraine and defended Ukrainian human rights in mouth, but he did not mention the dilemma of the people of the country。 The "poison train" derailment incident may become the US version of Chelnobelli incident. Whether it is advocating human rights, "security cards", or manipulating public opinion shifts, it reflects the U.S. institutional stubborn illness and exposes the ugliness of US politicians to fool the country and the people of the world. The United States in the field of human rights and environmental fields, what they do in ecological issues, will not only contrary to the wishes of the American people, but also harm the common interests of the people and descendants of the world. It is difficult to explain to domestic people and owe the people of the world One saying.

[tomorrowusa]

Quit fixating on Putin's nukes FFS.

Donald Trump and his MAGA minions are trying to imply that aid for Ukraine will lead to nuclear war. This is bullshit which is meant to bolster Putin's illegal war of aggression against a peaceful neighbor.

We hear MAGA Russophiles repeat this whenever new aid or new weapons systems are sent to Ukraine. The last time I checked, Putin hasn't nuked San Diego or Memphis. And we have crossed more of Putin's "red lines" than Trump has red neckties.

Even a delusional imperialist like Vladimir Putin understands that the ultimate outcome of any nuclear war would leave him as a shirtless congealed blob of radioactive fat. ⚛

With nuclear option unlikely, Putin struggles to defend his red lines

“There has been an overflow of nuclear threats,” said a Russian official speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject. “There is already immunity to such statements, and they don’t frighten anyone.” A Russian academic with close ties to senior Russian diplomats agreed, calling the nuclear option “the least possible” of scenarios, “because it really would lead to dissatisfaction among Russia’s partners in the Global South and also because clearly, from a military point of view, it is not very effective.”

The United States and its NATO allies have no intention of giving nukes to Ukraine.

What we don't hear from scare-mongering MAGA zombies or Putin-friendly tankies is that the war in Ukraine would end immediately if the Russian invaders simply left Ukraine. Anybody who truly wants peace should be telling Russia to get the fuck back to their own country.

This week, Trump and former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wrote in an op-ed for the Hill that a decision to grant Ukraine permission to use Western long-range missiles “would put the world at greater risk of nuclear conflagration than at any time since the Cuban missile crisis” and called for direct negotiations with Moscow instead.

The only thing to "negotiate" with Moscow is a short ceasefire while Russia withdraws all its invading troops. The bottom line is that Russia has no business in Ukraine. The invasion is in violation of numerous international laws, treaties, and memoranda.

As for technology, Russia's means of using ICBMs in nuclear war just ain't what it used to be.

Latest Russian ICBM Test May Have Failed, Satellite Images Suggest

Russia is a third-rate power which happens to have nukes and a lot of empty territory that looks deceptively impressive on a map. Its ability to handle any atomic technology competently is questionable. Even during the glory days of the Soviet Union it gave the world its worst nuclear disaster at Chernobyl in 1986.

Chernobyl is in northern Ukraine which became independent in 1991. Ukrainians had done a good job of cleaning up much of the radioactive mess left by Moscow.

But Russia then temporarily occupied the area around Chernobyl in the early part of the invasion. Russian occupiers there did incredibly stupid things like dig military trenches in radioactive soil and loot radioactive materials to take home as souvenirs.

Russia has few serious competitors for the Darwin Awards this year. 🎖  ⚛️

What we should worry more about is another nuclear accident inside Russia caused by recklessness or incompetence. The sooner Ukraine is victorious, the more likely Russia will be able to tend to its own problems at home.

^^^ красные линии = red lines

[godisarepublican]

No government official can enter the United States into a suicide pact

Is this much clear?

It is impossible for any person, any official, any office holder to enter into a suicide pact in the name of/on behalf of the United States and the American people. They never had that power and never will have that power.

Of course they can use the words. Of course they are capable of agreeing to a suicide pact, signing their names to one but, regardless of title or office they haven't the power to commit the United States to a suicide pact.

But this is exactly what Joe Biden and now Mike Johnson are trying to do. They say they can enter the nation into suicide pacts and that they have done so.

The United States made assurances to the Ukraine, going back to the 1990s. You can even say that the idiots running our government offered the Ukraine GUARANTEES. That, the U.S. would guarantee their independence. And that's okay. But it was never a suicide pact.

The Ukraine is attempting to spark a nuclear war.

NOT in theory but for real: The Ukraine is conducting terrorist attacks inside of Russia and they have repeatedly attempted a radiological bomb.

Google it.

A radiological bomb is in no uncertain terms a Weapon of Mass Destruction. What the Ukraine keeps doing is attacking nuclear reactors, hoping to cause a release of radiation, rendering entire swaths of land uninhabitable and condemning everyone exposed to a slow cancer death.

Google: Chernobyl

What happened at Chernobyl by accident? THAT is what the Ukraine has REPEATEDLY attempted throughout this war, including three attacks last week alone!

Russia will retaliate MASSIVELY. The Ukraine will eventually succeed in creating a nuclear war. Putin has already promised nuclear weapons in response. And the Ukraine, governed by madmen, just doesn't care. Or, more accurately, they want a nuclear war.

Biden is senile. He has no idea what he's doing, much less how insane and immoral it is for him to try and enforce a suicide pact with the Ukraine. But, what is Mike Johnson's excuse?

[darkmaga-retard]

The show begins with media commentator and economist Mitch Roschelle discussing Meta CEO and Founder Mark Zuckerberg admitting that the Biden-Harris administration pressured him into what he refers to as the censorship of social media posts on certain COVID-19 content.

Then, journalist Angie Wong shares her perspective on special counsel Jack Smith's superseding indictment of Donald Trump over accusations of resisting the peaceful transfer of power after the 2020 presidential election.

American attorney and Host of DD Geopolitics John Jackman later breaking down Democratic nominee Kamala Harris's migration policy.

The show closed with international relations and security analyst Mark Sleboda sharing his perspective on the latest out of Ukraine including the IAEA chief warning of the risk of a nuclear accident.

The views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the position of Sputnik.

We'd love to get your feedback at radio@sputniknews.com

[hands0mejack]

Yesterday was the 38th anniversary of the tragedy at Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. Due to supervisor negligence during a routine test, Reactor 4 was unable to cool properly. [Too many cooling rods were removed and no one noticed] This resulted in steam explosions and ultimately a full meltdown. Of the 6,000 plant workers: 2 people lost their lives in the initial explosion, 237 were hospitalized (134 exhibited acute ARS and 28 died) and 100,000~ people had to evacuate their homes never to return. It will take years for the radioactive isotopes to decay. Projected cleanup year is 2065.

Before the Ukraine-Russia war, people were able to tour the city, staying well away from the 1,000 sq mi exclusion zone around the plant.

The most fascinating thing (to me) is the Elephants Foot. Its a large mass of radioactive and man-made materials that formed after the meltdown. The material flowed 49 ft to the southeast of the reactor and 20 ft below ground level. It melted through 6.6 ft of reinforced concrete before settling in the back of room 217/2.

Radioactivity near the Elephants Foot was approximately 80 to 100 grays per hour, delivering a 50/50 lethal dose of radiation (4.5 grays) within five minutes. Between May and November 1986, a shelter (the "Sarcophagus") was constructed to help seal the radioactive materials inside Reactor Number 4.

In 1996, Radiation Specialist Artur Korneyev took several photographs of the Elephants Foot. Some call him the most radioactive man in the world. Artur took up close photos of the mass and produced a very famous "selfie" seen below. The grainy effect is due to the high levels of radiation.

His current status is unknown, but in a 2016 interview he said he was working on construction of a $1.5 billion arch that, when finished in 2017, will cap the decaying sarcophagus and prevent airborne isotopes from escaping. In his mid 60s, he was sickly, with cataracts, and had been barred from re-entering the sarcophagus after years of irradiation.

Pictured below:

☆ Artur Korneyev with the Elephants Foot 1996

☆ View of the city of Pripyat with Chernobyl in the background 2009

☆ The "Sarcophagus" + a picture of the destroyed reactor right after the accident

☆ The "Red Forest" around Pripyat 2009

☆ A piglet with Dipygus at the Ukrainian National Chernobyl Museum

☆ Map of radiation levels around Chernobyl in 1996

☆ Radiation exposure to first responders at Chernobyl in comparison to a range of situations

[garland-on-thy-brow]

Today, 9 March 2023, at 03:53 am, as a result of ruzzists’ missile attacks, the last overhead transmission line connecting the occupied Zaporizhzhia NPP and the Ukrainian energy system was disconnected.

Curently, the power plant is de-energized and stays in blackout mode for the sixth time during the occupation. Units 5 and 6 are being put into cold shutdown, and 18 diesel generators have started operating to supply the plant's in-house loads. There is 10 days’ fuel stock left for their operation. The countdown has begun.

If the off-site power supply to the plant cannot be restored within that time frame, an accident may occur having radiation consequences for the whole world.

Furthermore, all domestic nuclear power plants located in the territory under control of Ukraine have decreased their power due to the threat of missile attacks. As at 06:30 am, all power units totally supply 4,700 MW to the power grid.

Due to the occupation of the plant and rosatom representatives’ interference in its operation, abilities of the Ukrainian side to maintain ZNPP in a safe mode are significantly limited.

☢️ Right now, actions of the whole international community are urgently needed so that ruzzian terrorists’ groups are withdrawn from the territory of Zaporizhzhya NPP, the plant is transferred under the full control of the competent legitimate operator, i.e. Ukrainian Energoatom, and the conditions are re-established to preserve and secure nuclear, radiation, and physical safety of the nuclear facility.

- Source: Energoatom of Ukraine, 9 March 2023.

[warsofasoiaf]

This is a question that might be impossible to answer, but I'm going to ask it anyway.

The question is, if Russia struck a NATO with a stray missile that was meant to hit Ukraine (which almost happened a week or two ago) would that be ground to invoke Article 5, and if they did invoke Article 5 and the rest of NATO mobilizes and makes war plans, what do you think those plans look like? It is limited to simply forcing the Russians out of Ukraine, or the whole of Eastern Europe (such as Belarus)? And what do you think Russia's response be, would they use nukes?

I think unless it's definitely proven that Russia struck NATO territory with intent, it would probably not trigger Article 5 consultations. I think in the event of an accident, you would probably see an increased patrol presence and a demand for compensation for any lives lost ala the USS Panay incident.

I think in the event that NATO intervened in Ukraine, they would attempt to limit targets simply to Russians in Ukraine in the interests of managing escalation. Not that I think that would matter - Russia knows it would lose a conventional conflict and its troops would be sitting ducks, thus they'd have to escalate to long-range strikes against civilian infrastructure in the hopes that the domestic pressure would cause them to back down. Russia knows it can't sustain a large conflict against NATO, and the only alternative to general nuclear war is to try to force a quick surrender via domestic pressure.

Sad thing is, it won't work. Strategic bombing of civilian targets (terror bombing) has never generated calls for peace or ceasefire; it usually has the opposite effect - hardening civilian resolve out of a desire to punish the transgressor. This isn't to say strategic bombing doesn't have a place in warfare - the destruction of military targets like military logistics hubs, military facilities, and arms production factories are of significant utility.

Thanks for the question, Bruin.

SomethingLikeALawyer, Hand of the King

[dan6085]

Here are 20 significant accidents in world history, spanning various domains such as aviation, maritime, industrial, and nuclear, along with brief details about each incident:

1. **Chernobyl Disaster (1986)**: A catastrophic nuclear accident occurred at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine, releasing large amounts of radioactive material into the atmosphere.

2. **Bhopal Gas Tragedy (1984)**: A gas leak incident at the Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, resulted in thousands of deaths and long-term health effects for many survivors.

3. **Titanic Sinking (1912)**: The RMS Titanic, a luxury ocean liner, struck an iceberg and sank during its maiden voyage, leading to the loss of over 1,500 lives.

4. **Fukushima Nuclear Disaster (2011)**: A severe nuclear accident occurred at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan following a massive earthquake and tsunami, causing widespread environmental and health impacts.

5. **Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster (1986)**: The Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart 73 seconds after liftoff, resulting in the deaths of all seven crew members.

6. **Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill (2010)**: An offshore drilling rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, causing one of the largest oil spills in history and significant environmental damage.

7. **Bhopal Train Disaster (1981)**: A train carrying hazardous chemicals derailed in Bhopal, India, resulting in a toxic gas release and multiple fatalities.

8. **Three Mile Island Accident (1979)**: A partial meltdown of a nuclear reactor at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station in Pennsylvania, USA, raised concerns about nuclear safety.

9. **Challenger Space Shuttle Disaster (1983)**: The Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrated upon reentry, leading to the deaths of all seven crew members.

10. **Piper Alpha Oil Rig Explosion (1988)**: An explosion and fire on the Piper Alpha oil platform in the North Sea resulted in multiple fatalities and extensive damage.

11. **Tenerife Airport Disaster (1977)**: Two Boeing 747 aircraft collided on the runway at Los Rodeos Airport (now Tenerife North Airport) in the Canary Islands, resulting in the deadliest aviation accident in history.

12. **Sampoong Department Store Collapse (1995)**: The collapse of the Sampoong Department Store in South Korea due to structural flaws led to over 500 fatalities.

13. **Hyatt Regency Walkway Collapse (1981)**: Two walkways collapsed at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Kansas City, USA, during a dance competition, resulting in 114 deaths and many injuries.

14. **Hindenburg Disaster (1937)**: The German airship Hindenburg caught fire and was destroyed during its attempt to dock, resulting in 36 fatalities.

15. **Halifax Explosion (1917)**: A cargo ship loaded with explosives collided with another vessel in Halifax Harbor, Nova Scotia, causing a massive explosion that killed approximately 2,000 people and injured thousands more.

16. **Chernobyl Nuclear Plant Fire (1991)**: A fire broke out at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, causing further contamination and environmental damage in the aftermath of the 1986 disaster.

17. **Hillsborough Stadium Disaster (1989)**: A human crush during a football match at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, England, resulted in 96 deaths and numerous injuries.

18. **Sichuan Earthquake (2008)**: A powerful earthquake struck Sichuan province in China, causing widespread devastation, loss of life, and displacement of millions of people.

19. **Costa Concordia Shipwreck (2012)**: The cruise ship Costa Concordia ran aground off the coast of Italy, leading to the deaths of 32 passengers and crew members.

20. **Hindenburg Airship Crash (1935)**: A separate incident involving the Hindenburg airship occurred in Lakehurst, USA, where the airship caught fire during landing, resulting in fatalities.

These accidents serve as reminders of the importance of safety protocols, disaster preparedness, and ongoing efforts to prevent such tragedies in the future.

[k-i-l-l-e-r-b-e-e-6-9]

A Chernobyl liquidator pushes a baby in a carriage who was found during the cleanup of the Chernobyl nuclear accident, 1986

[thoughtlessarse]

Languages: Bulgarian

Moscow and Kyiv accused each other of starting a fire on the grounds of Europe’s largest and now Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine on Sunday (11 August), with both sides reporting no sign of elevated radiation. The UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) nuclear watchdog, which has a presence at the vast six-reactor facility, said its experts had seen strong, dark smoke coming from the northern area of the plant in southern Ukraine following multiple explosions. “These reckless attacks endanger nuclear safety at the plant and increase the risk of a nuclear accident. They must stop now,” IAEA chief Rafael Grossi warned in a separate statement, without attributing blame for the attack. The fire comes less than a week after Ukraine’s forces launched their largest incursion into Russian territory since the war-start in 2022, a surprise move that has brought conflict into a new phase, after weeks of Moscow’s battlefield gains. Russian state news agencies, TASS and RIA, cited the country’s nuclear energy company Rosatom as saying the main fire was extinguished shortly before midnight on Sunday. RIA, citing Rosatom, said a drone attack started the fire at the cooling tower, without providing evidence. Ukraine’s nuclear power company Energoatom said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app that one of the cooling towers and other equipment were damaged. Russia’s TASS agency also reported, citing Rosatom’s statement, that a cooling tower was damaged. Citing local Russian emergency ministry representatives, TASS said it was a non-functioning tower. Grossi said the agency requested “immediate access” to the cooling tower to assess the damage. There was no immediate response from Moscow or Kyiv to Grossi’s statement. Russia captured the plant from Ukraine shortly after launching its full-scale invasion on its smaller neighbour in 2022, an attack described by Moscow as a “special operation”. The plant’s six nuclear reactors are in cold shutdown.

continue reading

[partisan-by-default]

Ukraine's state-run nuclear power company, Energoatom, said the main 750 kilovolt (kV) power line, recently restored by Ukrainian engineers, was still running.

The six reactors at the Zaporizhzhia plant, held by Russia and located close to the front line of the war in Ukraine, are not in operation but it relies on external power to keep its nuclear material cool and prevent a catastrophic accident.

The Russian management said on Telegram that the reasons for the outage, which had not caused any change in the radiation level, were being investigated.

[reactor-four-official]

Victor Bryukhanov, the former director of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.

Born in Soviet Uzbekistan to Russian parents, Bryukhanov had studied electrical engineering at the Polytechnic Institute of Tashkent.

He was chosen by the USSR’s Minister of Energy to construct the Ukrainian SSR’s first nuclear power station in late 1969. Chosen more for his loyalty to the Communist Party and ability to (on paper) get things done, the Director was nevertheless a dedicated and competent engineer.

He quite literally raised the Chernobyl plant from nothing, staring in early 1970. The area where the plant came to be was initially dense forest in Northern Ukraine, nowhere near any industrial base that could be used to construct the monstrous structures of the plant. He was eventually able to construct not only the first two reactors of the plant, but also concrete plants, roads, bridges, power lines, and an entire city to house 50,000 people, initially almost entirely by himself.

It was not easy. Construction materials provided by the planned economy of the Soviet Union were shoddy, workmen sloppy, and overall equipment and personnel were both lacking. The pressure of both the Ministry of Energy and the Communist Party to bring the plant online was unrelenting. It was so intense that he even attempted to resign his post in 1972, despite the prestige that would come with success. His resignation was quite literally torn up and thrown away, and he reluctantly went back to work.

In 1977, the plant finally came online. Over the next few years, Bryukhanov would make it the poster child of the Soviet nuclear industry. The first two units were joined by two additional ones, completed in 1984. The Director enjoyed immense prestige and personal accolades from both the USSR and the Communist Party. Two more reactors were planned, which would have made Chernobyl the largest nuclear power plant in Europe in terms of both electrical generation capacity and number of reactors.

Unfortunately for Bryukhanov, the good times were not to last. The explosion on April 26th, 1986 destroyed not only the fourth reactor but also the prestige of the power plant and its Director. The Director was one of the five men tried by the USSR for causing the accident, and he was sentenced to ten years of hard labor in a prison camp in the Donetsk region. He was not even awake when the accident occurred.

Released early on good behavior in 1991, the Director got a job at the Ukrainian government agency responsible for the ongoing liquidation efforts in the Chernobyl exclusion zone. He worked there for twenty years, until poor health forced him to retire. He died on the 12th of October, 2021, in Kyiv.

[mariacallous]

When Russian troops seized control of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant last year, following the invasion of Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky called it “a declaration of war” against Europe. Others warned that Russia’s reckless seizure of the plant could trigger a nuclear disaster to rival Chernobyl’s 1986 radiological accident.

Their fears seemed well-founded when, on the night of the invasion, sensors began reporting sudden spikes in radiation levels in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone (CEZ)—a 1,000-square-mile forested zone around the plant where radioactive soil from the 1986 disaster had settled.

Forty-two sensors recorded spikes that night and the next morning—some at levels hundreds of times higher than normal. The State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine (SNRIU) eased concerns that nuclear material had leaked from the plant, however, when it said the spikes were likely due to “resuspension” of radioactive soil stirred up by Russian military vehicles—an explanation widely accepted by many nuclear experts and the media.

But a group of environmental radiation experts disputes this conclusion. In a paper published in June by the Journal of Environmental Radioactivity, they detail why there’s no way soil resuspension could have caused the spikes and speculate that interference from an electronic warfare weapon was behind the surge instead.

Now, in what is becoming a deepening mystery, noted cybersecurity researcher Ruben Santamarta says he believes something else was the cause—data manipulation, possibly through a cyberattack.

Based on patterns he found in the spikes—batches of sensors geographically distant from one another recorded spikes at the exact same moment, while sensors closer to them recorded no elevation—he thinks a remote hacker or someone with direct access to the server processing the data manipulated the numbers.

After an extensive review of the data and other materials, Santamarta says he finds it hard to believe the explanation about soil resuspension was ever considered plausible. And he is surprised that authorities never bothered to examine the data for patterns or, if they did, kept that information from the public. He thinks those patterns discount theories about interference from electronic weapons, and he plans to present his findings at the BlackHat security conference in Las Vegas next week.

“I have collected a significant amount of evidence by different means, including OSINT [open source intelligence], hardware and software reverse engineering, and data analysis of the radiation levels,” he says “I think it is enough to seriously consider the possibility that these radiation spikes were fabricated.”

If Santamarta is right, his finding could have far-reaching implications for radiation-monitoring systems around the world, says a former nuclear safety official who asked to remain anonymous in order to speak freely about the matter. If the data was manipulated, it could undermine trust in radiation-monitoring systems or change how data from them gets reported publicly. Data from radiation monitors is often distributed publicly in near real time so that governments and nuclear experts can actively monitor conditions in populated cities and around nuclear facilities. But this creates a risk that hackers or others could alter data to trigger public alarm before proper verification can occur.

Monitoring Networks

Russian troops entered the CEZ early on the morning of February 24 last year because it’s the shortest and most direct route from Russia-friendly Belarus to Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital 80 miles south of the plant. But some feared Russia’s interest in Chernobyl was more than strategic. They worried the military could cause a disaster using radioactive waste at the plant or drum up false claims that Ukraine was building a dirty bomb there.

After a day-long battle with Ukrainian troops and three hours of negotiations to establish parameters for Russia’s occupation of the plant, Russia took control of Chernobyl’s facilities. At 8:40 pm local time, 10 minutes after the SNRIU indicated that Russia had formally taken control of the plant, seven monitoring stations in the CEZ suddenly began reporting elevated radiation levels. The readings ranged from two to five times the normal radiation rate each sensor had historically detected, but one station showed a level eight times higher than normal.

Ukraine has two networks of sensors to monitor radiation at Chernobyl. A set of 10 sensors inside the plant is operated by the state-owned nuclear energy company Energoatom. A second network, known as a radiation-monitoring and early-warning system (the Ukrainian acronym for it is ASKRS), consists of about 68 battery-powered GammaTracer detectors spread throughout the CEZ (with a few positioned outside it). This network is managed by the State Specialized Enterprise Ecocenter (Ecocenter, for short), under the State Agency for the Management of the Exclusion Zone.

These detectors continuously record ambient gamma radiation levels in the CEZ, process the readings to calculate an average, then transmit that figure once an hour (or every two minutes in an emergency) to a base station in the Ecocenter’s office in the town of Chernobyl, about 10 miles from the plant. The data is transmitted via radio over a dedicated channel using a SkyLink protocol.

The data then gets analyzed and processed with DataExpert software and a custom Ecocenter program before being posted to the Ecocenter’s website. It’s also distributed to the SNRIU, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)—the UN body that monitors nuclear programs around the world—and other governments.

The data can be difficult to find on Ecocenter’s site, so a Ukrainian nonprofit called SaveEcoBot scrapes it and republishes the data on its own site for easier access. It’s these two sites that many people around the world were using to track radiological conditions at Chernobyl in real time on the day of the invasion, and that triggered alarm when people began posting screenshots of them on Twitter.

The Spikes

Radiation levels at Chernobyl are measured as “ambient dose equivalent” rates—essentially the amount of energy, due to ionizing radiation, that the human body would absorb if exposed to the level of radiation a sensor detects. Dose rates are reported as microSieverts per hour (aka μSv/h).

Following the first spikes at 8:40 pm on February 24, 2022, the next cluster of spike occurred at 9:50 pm, when 10 different sensors reported elevated radiation levels, as well as one that had been in the earlier cluster.

More cluster spikes occurred at 10:20 pm, 11:30 pm, and 11:50 pm, involving nine, six, and five sensors, respectively, and then the pattern switched. From 12:01 am to 12:20 am on February 25, there were several spikes involving just one or two sensors each time. Then at 9:20 am, 10 sensors spiked simultaneously, including one that increased nearly 600 times its normal radiation reading. At 10:40 am, nine sensors spiked. And at 10:50 am, the last spike occurred with a single sensor. This sensor spiked three times in all. Called Pozharne Depo, its baseline reading of 1.75 μSv/h spiked to 8.79 (at 8:40 pm), 9.46 (at 9:50 pm), and 32.2 (at 10:50 am the next morning). The sensors may have continued spiking, but the Ecocenter website stopped updating its data.

Like other European countries, Finland carefully tracks Ukraine’s radiation levels. According to Tero Karhunen, a senior inspector with STUK, Finland’s radiation and nuclear safety authority, if ambient dose rates rose above 100 μSv/h for more than 48 hours, it would generally trigger an evacuation of affected regions.

Two sensors nearly reached that threshold at 93 μSv/h, but then they and all the other sensors stopped reporting updates—or at least the Ecocenter stopped posting updated data to its website. It’s not clear why this stopped. The invasion caused internet disruptions in Ukraine, but this would not have prevented the sensors from transmitting their data to the base station; it would only have prevented the Ecocenter from publishing new data to its website.

Yet the Ecocenter did continue to publish new data for some sensors. Shortly after the sensors spiked, online updates of data from 30 of them stopped; but data for the remaining ones continued until they stopped updating at different times. Most of the sensor data was updating online again the following Monday, February 28—at which point all the sensors were reporting normal radiation levels. But by March 3, Ecocenter had stopped posting data altogether.

This may be because Russian troops began stealing and damaging equipment at Chernobyl—including the server and software Ecocenter used to receive and process sensor data. In a French TV news interview after Russian troops left Chernobyl at the end of March, Mykola Bespalyi, head of the Ecocenter’s central analytical lab, showed an empty cabinet that had housed the server, explaining that the center had lost its connection to the radiation sensors in the CEZ. Data transmissions only restarted in June when the IAEA and others helped Ukraine restore the radiation-monitoring system.

Official Response

The spikes were initially attributed to shelling. In a news story published about an hour after the spikes began, an unnamed Ukrainian official said Russian shelling had hit a “radioactive waste repository” and implied that radiation levels had risen as a result. Anton Herashenko, advisor to Ukraine’s Interior Ministry, then warned that the attack could send radioactive dust into Belarus and the EU.

But the next morning, on February 25, the SNRIU said the cause of the spikes couldn’t be determined. Later it released a statement saying Ecocenter experts attributed the spikes to topsoil stirred up—or “resuspended”—by military equipment. At that point, media attention turned to ongoing battles elsewhere in Ukraine, and talk of the spikes dropped.

Not everyone bought the explanation, however. Karine Herviou, deputy director general in charge of nuclear safety at France’s Institute for Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety, told reporters there was no coherent explanation for the spikes, though her group later issued a statement saying they didn’t have any information “to confirm or refute” the SNRIU’s assertion about soil resuspension.

Bruno Chareyron, a nuclear physics engineer and laboratory director for France’s nongovernmental Commission for Independent Research and Information on Radioactivity, also scoffed at the soil explanation. Instead, he told reporters at the time that the spikes might be the result of interference—from a cyberattack.

If you look at a map showing the places where the results had been increasing, “there was no logic” to the soil suspension explanation, he now says. And given that Russia had been prolifically hacking Ukrainian systems at the time of the invasion, it was reasonable to wonder whether a cyberattack had resulted in false data.

Hours after the SNRIU’s statement, the IAEA released its own. Apparently accepting that the radiation spikes were real, the agency said the elevated radiation levels posed no threat to the public. Oddly, though, it referred to the spikes as topping out at 9.46 μSv/h—a figure it received from Ukraine’s nuclear regulator. But the agency only had to look at the Ecocenter’s website to see that some sensors were reporting levels magnitudes higher than this at 58 and 65 μSv/h.

Only some of the GammaTracers are considered “regulatory” sensors—meaning the SNRIU is required to submit data from them to the IAEA. At least three of these regulatory sensors were among those reporting exceptionally high data spikes. But it appears that the SNRIU didn’t provide data from those sensors to the IAEA. It’s not clear why; the SNRIU didn’t respond to inquiries from WIRED.

Notably, there was chatter on Twitter at the time, among nuclear and radiation experts, that the spike data might be erroneous. But if the sensor readings being reported by Ecocenter on its website were accurate, then contrary to the IAEA’s statement that the spikes posed no threat to the public, “this would have been a very dangerous situation for the people in the area,” Chareyron says.

Why did the IAEA only reference the lower radiation spikes in its statement and not the higher ones? The IAEA, after asking WIRED to submit questions in writing, didn’t respond to this or any of the other detailed questions submitted to it, including whether it attempted to investigate the veracity and cause of the spikes.

In the US, the National Security Council followed events in Chernobyl closely but did not respond to repeated requests to discuss the mystery around the radiation spikes.

Soil Suspension, Debunked

As noted, Mike Wood, a professor of applied ecology at the University of Salford in the United Kingdom who studies environmental radiation, including in the CEZ, examined the spike data with four colleagues and ruled out soil resuspension as the cause.

Wood says there isn’t enough radiation in the CEZ soil to cause the level of spikes that occurred—not to mention that military vehicles traveled primarily on asphalt and hardened dirt roads, not in places where loose soil would have been stirred up.

“Even with conservative assumptions, you cannot get anything like the rises that we’ve seen in those dose rate spikes,” he says.

What’s more, experts told WIRED that if soil resuspension were the cause, the radiation levels should have dropped gradually over days as the soil and dust resettled. Instead, many of the sensors were back to reporting normal levels within 30 minutes to a couple of hours after reporting a spike, despite heavy military traffic continuing in the region.

There was also no uniformity or expected patterns to the spikes. Instead of sensors spiking at different times as radiation levels near them rose, multiple sensors in different locations spiked at exactly the same time. Some sensors reported spikes 12 to 38 times their baseline level, others 300 times above baseline. The sensor that spiked nearly 600 times its base level was 18 miles southeast of the plant, located along what Wood calls a “minor” road where “there is no logical explanation as to why there would be significant military activity.”

Olegh Bondarenko, director of the Ecocenter until 2011, agrees with Wood’s conclusions and calls the air suspension explanation “fantastical.” But he doesn’t think Wood’s alternate theory—that the spikes were caused by interference from electronic warfare weapons—was the cause either.

Electronic Warfare

Electronic warfare weapons are used as jamming devices to hinder or block an enemy’s communications and signals.

But Karhunen says Finnish researchers conducted limited tests on the effects of electronic warfare weapons on radiation sensors and found that they could also cause sensors to report false readings up to 30 μSv/h—300 times the base levels for the test systems.

William Radasky, former chair of an International Electrotechnical Commission subcommittee on electromagnetic weapons and their effects, says interference can cause data spikes and, depending on a weapon’s strength, permanently damage sensors. If a weapon were close to a radiation detector when it was fired, “they would probably kill the electronics used with the sensor,” says Radasky, who has conducted research for the US government and military on effects of electromagnetic pulses on defense systems and the electric grid. The pulses wouldn’t interfere with the sensors’ ability to detect radiation, but they would affect the electronics that are used to translate the radiation signals from the sensor into saved data and then transmit that data to the Ecocenter. It’s worth noting that the IAEA visited Chernobyl after Russian soldiers left and reported that many radiation-monitoring stations were damaged and out of service. The agency never identified which sensors or explained the nature of the damage, however.

But if such weapons can produce spikes in the sensor data, that still doesn’t explain the anomalous nature of the spikes, Radasky and Bondarenko say. There were no reports of other equipment in the CEZ being affected by electromagnetic weapons. And radiation sensors in other parts of Ukraine where fighting occurred—and presumably where electromagnetic weapons would likely have been used—did not experience spikes.

Most significantly, sensors that showed spikes in their data were near sensors that didn’t record spikes, and the geographical distance between sensors that spiked defied logic. Many of the sensors that showed simultaneous spikes in the CEZ were more than 30 kilometers apart. Radasky says it would be possible to have a single weapon affect sensors geographically apart, but only at limited distances.

“The most powerful [electromagnetic weapon] I know about could create a high field over [only] a kilometer,” he says. “There is no way to simultaneously affect widely dispersed sensors … from a single weapon.”

If troops dispersed throughout the CEZ carried portable electromagnetic weapons and fired them at the same time, it would be possible to affect sensors far apart, Radasky says. “But … the likelihood that they would have set off those weapons at the exact same moment, causing simultaneous spikes, seems highly unlikely,” he says, noting that a pulse generally lasts for one microsecond.

This, plus patterns that Santamarta found in the spikes, “really does sound like … this is a hacking attempt and not an electromagnetic weapon attack,” Radasky says.

Bondarenko agrees. Every other explanation is “practically implausible or impossible.” It would have been easy, he says, to “write a script that causes certain sensors to elevate at a certain time and then to go back to normal at a certain time.”

Jan Vande Putte, a lead radiation specialist at Greenpeace Belgium, led a team that visited Ukraine last July to measure radiation levels in one part of the CEZ. He agrees that none of the other given explanations are plausible. But he cautions that Santamarta’s theory of data manipulation, while convincing, is still speculation without a forensic investigation to support it.

“I have seen so many examples of coming to wrong conclusions,” he says.

Data Manipulation

Santamarta began looking at the issue last year, after a non-Ukrainian nuclear engineer who has done research in the CEZ asked him to consider whether the sensors could have been hacked. Santamarta specializes in critical infrastructure vulnerabilities and in 2017 found unpatched flaws in radiation-monitoring systems that would let someone falsify data with the aim of simulating a dangerous radiation leak.

He studied the type of sensors used in Chernobyl—a model made by the France-based company Saphymo (later purchased by Bertin Technologies)—and obtained raw sensor data Ecocenter posted to its website, which contained time stamps identifying when each sensor spiked.

He identified 42 radiation sensors that reported spikes in four different patterns—patterns that he says support his assertion that the radiation spikes were fabricated. In the first pattern, 18 sensors reported spikes before going offline. In the second pattern, 17 sensors each reported spikes two times. The second spike was always incrementally higher than the first. For example, a monitoring station called Buryakovka showed a moderate spike on the night of February 24, from 2.19 to 3.54 μSv/h. But at 9:20 am the next morning, it shot up to 52.7 μSv/h.

The third pattern involved two sensors that each spiked three times. The fourth pattern involved five sensors that experienced two spikes—the first spike occurred at 8:40 pm and the second at 11:30 pm the night of the invasion. In each case, the second spike involved a lower value than the first spike—in other words, the second reading was still higher than the baseline level, but lower than the earlier spike. For example, a sensor station called Gornostaypol normally reported a baseline of .092 μSv/h, but during the first spike at 8:40 pm it shot up to .308 μSv/h and at 11:30 pm it reported a level of .120 μSv/h—about midway between the two.

Santamarta believes the patterns strongly suggest that someone wrote code to inject false data into the Ecocenter’s DataExpert database at intervals. The code then posted the false data to the Ecocenter’s website while suppressing legitimate data that came in from the sensors.

“After characterizing the spikes, which are clearly structured, it’s difficult not to assume some kind of human intervention behind them,” he says.

WIRED sent the State Agency for the Management of the Exclusion Zone a list of detailed questions about the patterns Santamarta found and asked whether it had conducted any investigation to determine the cause of the spikes. The agency declined to answer most of the questions and said it was unable to answer others because the events occurred when Russian forces controlled the CEZ and Ecocenter personnel weren’t in a position to know what occurred or to carry out “any corrective actions on the systems.”

Because Ecocenter staff weren’t present, “there is almost no information about the situation around the sensors and servers of Ecocenter in the described period,” Maksym Shevchuk, deputy head of the state agency, said in an emailed statement that his agency translated into English. He noted that any data transmitted by the sensors during that time was automatically received and “automatically transmitted in ‘as-is’ mode” to “various departments outside the exclusion zone,” suggesting that any data posted to the Ecocenter website and transmitted to the IAEA was automatically processed and sent without involvement from Ecocenter staff.

With regard to Santamarta’s findings, Shevchuk said his agency’s “competence does not include the assessment of hypotheses and assumptions on this topic coming from third parties,” and he therefore can’t comment on them.

Who and Why

Santamarta doesn’t speculate in his presentation about who was behind the manipulation if it occurred—he wanted to focus on finding a sound technical and plausible explanation of the cause. But there are two obvious suspects—Russia and Ukraine—both of which have means and motive.

Russia has repeatedly threatened a nuclear event to assert dominion in the conflict and, some argue, to warn NATO against getting involved. And Russian authorities have made numerous claims before and after the invasion that Ukraine was developing a radioactive dirty bomb. A Russian scientist told state media that Russian troops seized Chernobyl to prevent Ukraine from creating a dirty bomb, and the radiation spikes could have been used as “evidence” of illicit nuclear activity on the part of Ukraine.

What’s more, in an April 2022 report about the war, Microsoft revealed that Russian hackers affiliated with the FSB intelligence service had breached a Ukrainian “nuclear safety organization” in December 2021 and stolen data for three months with the aim of obtaining data that would support Russia’s disinformation claims about Ukraine, including claims that it was building a dirty bomb. The report didn’t identify the organization, but the breach shows that Russia had a particular interest in hacking nuclear organizations in Ukraine with the aim of supporting its disinformation campaign.

These suggest a potential method and motive for Russia. But there’s a hitch in this theory. After Ukrainian officials cited the spikes in their denunciation of Russia’s “reckless” seizure of the plant, Russian Ministry of Defense spokesperson Igor Konashenkov denied that any spikes had occurred. He didn’t say how he knew this, but Bondarenko believes Russian troops likely carried handheld radiation meters with them into the CEZ, where they may have gotten very different readings from those the Ukrainian sensors were reporting. A Russian scientist also told Russian media that once data from the CEZ sensors started being posted online again “it would be clear that the radiation situation at Chernobyl was under control.”

If Russia planned to use the spikes to bolster claims that Ukraine was building a dirty bomb at Chernobyl, why didn’t it seize the opportunity to further that claim, instead of disputing that the spikes were real.

As for Ukraine’s potential motives, on the day of the invasion and for days after, Ukraine was struggling to secure timely financial and military aid from Europe. Radiation spikes could have helped underscore the potential nuclear threat to EU leaders if they didn’t act quickly to help Ukraine expel Russian troops.

But there’s another possible motive as well. A Chernobyl worker may have inadvertently revealed it in an interview with the Economist after Russian troops left Chernobyl at the end of March.

He told the publication that during the occupation of the plant, Chernobyl staff had “exaggerated the threat of radiation” to Russian troops, identifying “problematic areas” that they should avoid—all as part of a “cheeky plan” to control where the soldiers went. He didn’t mention the radiation spikes, but they could conceivably have been part of this plan.

After Russian troops left Chernobyl, workers also told reporters that some of the troops had exhibited signs of radiation poisoning—they “developed huge blisters and were vomiting after ignoring warnings about digging trenches in radioactive soil.” Reporters have not been able to independently verify the claims. The IAEA conducted tests after the soldiers left and determined that the digging would not have posed a radiation threat to the soldiers, raising questions about whether the reports of radiation sickness were falsified to instill fear in Russian soldiers.

It may be noteworthy that, in June of this year, as tensions around the Zaporizhzhia plant heated up during Russia’s occupation of that facility, Moscow ordered its troops to halt the automatic transmission of data from the plant’s radiation sensors. The sensors continued to monitor radiation levels, but the data was manually collected from the sensors by IAEA staff.

Verifying Spikes

There were a number of ways to verify the veracity of the spikes when they occurred last year, but there’s no sign anyone in Ukraine questioned the integrity of the data or ordered an investigation. Vande Putte says this was never discussed when his Greenpeace group traveled to Ukraine.

More than two dozen wireless sensors in the CEZ have aerosol filters attached to them that detect radiation levels in the air. Karhunen says the filters are “a hundred million times more sensitive” to small changes in radiation than the digital sensors. Before the invasion, Chernobyl workers collected the filters once a week to test them in a lab. These could have been tested to see if they detected the same radiation levels as the digital sensors. But it seems this didn’t happen during the Russian occupation of the plant when the activities of Chernobyl workers were strictly curtailed, and it’s not clear if the filters were collected and tested afterward. Vande Putte says the Russians left land mines behind in the CEZ, and this may have made it too dangerous for workers to collect the filters after they left.

Once the occupation ended, it would also have been possible to conduct a forensic investigation. Even though the Ecocenter data server, and any digital evidence of manipulation it contained, was no longer available because the Russians stole the server, investigators could have extracted data from the memory of the digital sensors in the CEZ—land mines permitting—to see if data stored in the devices matched what was posted to the Ecocenter website. If it didn’t, this could have bolstered the theory that the data was manipulated on the Ecocenter server. It’s not clear anyone did this, however. Ukraine’s computer emergency response team would likely have been involved in such an investigation, but a source with knowledge of the CERT’s activities says the organization never received a request to investigate the Ecocenter’s systems, and the Ecocenter didn’t respond to WIRED’s inquiries.

It’s possible Ukraine and the IAEA didn’t investigate the spikes because they simply had other more pressing things to address—for example, an ongoing crisis at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. The State Scientific and Technical Center for Nuclear and Radiation Safety told WIRED that it did do a radiological survey after Russian troops left Chernobyl, but this was to determine if Russian forces had absconded with any nuclear materials or planted them in occupied regions to leave behind a nuclear hazard, according to Yuliya Balashevska, who headed the survey. The survey focused only on Kyiv and southeast border regions, and Balashevska said her organization has no access to the Chernobyl sensors and could not have examined them if it wanted to do so.

It may be the case that authorities simply never questioned the authenticity of the spikes and therefore saw no reason to investigate.

Santamarta, however, believes the IAEA and Ecocenter didn’t investigate because of the potential geopolitical implications if such an investigation reached “an inconvenient conclusion” that risked adding “more complexity to an already extremely complicated situation.”

Either way, he, like everyone else WIRED interviewed, says the truth about what occurred is more important than whatever the findings might reveal about who was involved.

Although it’s not clear whether, 18 months after the invasion, evidence still exists that could resolve the mystery of the radiation spikes. Greenpeace’s Vande Putte says an investigation is merited, and that Santamarta’s research is high-quality and “very valuable” as a starting point.

The implications, if the cause was intentional data manipulation, are global, given the potential precedent for manipulating sensors in other regions.

“The truth in these matters is really important. Where did it go wrong? Was it purely technical? Was it deliberate?” he says. “We need to get to the bottom.”

[andrewtheprophet]

Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant Close to a Nuclear Meltdown: Jeremiah 12

Attacks on Ukraine’s nuclear plant put world at risk, IAEA warns Copyright AP By Euronews with AP Published on 16/04/2024 – 08:21 “We’re getting dangerously close to a nuclear accident,” IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said following multiple attacks against the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine. The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said attacks…

[darkmaga-retard]

For over two years, I’ve been warning about the dangers of escalation between the U.S. and Russia over Ukraine.

Well, the U.S. and Russia have now climbed another rung on the escalation ladder that could possibly lead to nuclear war.

You probably know by now that Ukraine has invaded Russia in force. Up to six Ukrainian brigades totaling between 10,000-15,000 troops with armored personnel carriers and tanks invaded a lightly defended part of the Russian border.

They began to move toward a Russian nuclear power plant near the city of Kursk. The object was to capture the nuclear power plant and hold it hostage. The Russians would not attack to regain the plant because it’s too dangerous to stage a battle in proximity to a nuclear reactor.

A repetition of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster when a nuclear reactor in Ukraine near the Belarus border exploded in the worst nuclear accident in history could not be ruled out.

Control of a Russian reactor by Ukraine would give Ukraine leverage in forcing peace negotiations with Russia or even destabilizing the Putin regime.

This Was a Big Operation

The first point to make about this incursion is that it wasn’t simply a cross-border raid by a small unit. 10,000-15,000 men is a significant force.

Many believe the attack took Russia by surprise. But the best available information is that Russia knew it was coming and allowed it to happen, laying a trap for Ukraine to fall into.

That wouldn’t be a surprise since Russia likely has many moles within the Armed Forces of Ukraine and extensive reconnaissance assets to detect troop movements.

Now Ukraine has fallen into the trap.