Apparently Ukrainians have surrendered now.
What a nerve wrecking situation. In the heat of the moment deciding when is the right time to surrender. Probably the smartest decision of the day.
What a nerve wrecking situation. In the heat of the moment deciding when is the right time to surrender. Probably the smartest decision of the day.
One of the channels that broadcasts (24/7) stream which is mentioned in the message above + periodically posted short clips of the news
Link to ICTV stream through ERR: https://jupiter.err.ee/otse/eri6
About the ICTV channel: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICTV_(Ukraine)
About ERR's decision: https://news.err.ee/1608518996/err-adds-current-time-ukraini...
For context, access to ERR's own Russian news site was blocked in Russia a few days ago.
But is still a risk. People does not act rationally in a war. If it continues for a lot of time any depressed 19yo soldier could say I'm sick of this, decided to suicide and destroy half of the EU with him. The objective of probable Ukrainian genocide has been upgraded to possible European genocide as a bonus.
On the other hand, Putin seems to crave for another countries joining the war so he can "show the nazis" to Russia.
What could happen is safety systems could be compromised causing a meltdown and that would carry the risk of spreading radioactive matter to the local environment. And if the local environment gets sufficiently contaminated then weather patterns, sea tides, etc could spread the radiation much further. But it's a slow risk (when compared to a nuclear weapon) so it is still possible to contain the damage to within a few miles, which I acknowledged is still bad but a much better outcome than half of Europe being contaminated.
Edit: This is a joke based on TV series Chernobyl. A Chernobyl reactor did infact explode and the logic was that it exploding was impossible there for it did not explode.
So yes nuclear plants can explode extremely violently and that can disperse huge quantities of radioactive material. They’re not nuclear detonations as in an atomic warhead, but the consequences can still be catastrophic and as at Chernobyl the fallout can be similar to that from a nuclear weapon. In fact when scientists in Russia initially detected the radiation from Chernobyl they at first assumed there must have been a nuclear explosion if done kind.
+ It's not the fission material that explodes (like in a bomb)
+ The explosion is relatively small
+ Radiation is then dispersed to the wider area via atmospheric or tidal conditions (like smoke drifting) rather than as a direct result of the explosion
All points I was making too.
> but the consequences can still be catastrophic and as at Chernobyl the fallout can be similar to that from a nuclear weapon
I never said there wouldn't be radioactive fallout nor that it wouldn't be catastrophic. I said it's a slower risk (days rather than seconds), easier to contain (relatively speaking) and it wouldn't take out half of Europe.
You're not actually disagreeing with anything I've stated despite phrasing your comment as if it were a correction.
Chernobyl was caused by several days of mismanagement. It wasn't something that happened over night. Fukushima took more than 24 hours after the tsunami for the first hydrogen explosion and the others were several days later. And it was a week after the tsunami before the situation escalated into a meltdown too.
To be clear: I'm not saying waging a fight inside a nuclear power station isn't a dangerous and stupid thing to do. What I'm saying is it's not comparable to a nuke exploding.
Chernobyl was a very unique situation though. They almost engineered that disaster to happen with the mistakes that they made. We've learned a lot since then too. That all said, you do make a very strong argument with your next sentence:
> It's plausible to imagine a few artillery shells into a plant's cooling system could lead to a similar chain of events.
Indeed. That is a very good point.
By the way, I never say that I was concerned by an explosion blowing half of the continent, but the effects on Germany for example, were measurable and still last. We shouldn't be so naive as to ignore the risk.
I think that your prevision of just a few miles, enough so Putin will have this safe perimeter, is too much optimistic
> I never say that I was concerned by an explosion blowing half of the continent, but the effects on Germany for example, were measurable and still last.
Your comment is very misleading then if that's what you meant:
"If it continues for a lot of time any depressed 19yo soldier could say I'm sick of this, decided to suicide and destroy half of the EU with him."
^ that reads to me like a pretty instant cause and effect, which a nuclear meltdown is not. If you were talking about over a prolonged period with no decontamination nor mitigation efforts put in place, then it really was not clear from your comment. And I'd argue that is a result of far more than just the actions of a depressed 19 year old soldier in isolation.
> I think that your prevision of just a few miles, enough to Putin have this safe perimeter, is too much optimistic
You're now conflating accident with intention. If Putin intentionally wants to contaminate half of the EU then that's a whole different argument to an accident happening during a capture of a power station or a depressed solder committing suicide (which was the original context you defined and the context I was responding to)
I'm not trying to dispute that the risk of contamination if one damages a nuclear power station is both significant and worrisome. I'm just saying it's not an instant effect (as your post implies) and thus measures can be taken to contain the worst of it to relatively a localized area.
Anyway, I think we both agree that nuclear power stations don't make good war zones :)