Nuclear reactor explodes in Chechenya

I do hope this is still a joke.

Now, this is still "under cover", which means that nobody announced it yet. (see Chernobyl) I first heard today from a colleague of mine ( her mother works at a bank). First, I didnt believe her, until my dad confirmed the story that someone from a big multinational company in Romania told him the same thing.

Now, can anyone shed some light on this? I do hope it aint true, because it would be total devastation.

Looks like it may be false.

Ukrainian energy agency says panic about NPP accidents is politically driven

Energoatom (Ukraine) believes that false reports disseminated in Ukraine about accidents at nuclear power plants is politically driven.

As REGNUM was reminded in Energoatom press office, the false reports about nuclear accidents started appearing since the beginning of last week. “The press office is commissioned to announce that such statements are nothing more than gossip and ungrounded fantasies,” the release says. “However, taking into account the frequency of the reports within a short period of time and that almost all Ukrainian nuclear power plants were mentioned in them, there are grounds to say that it was possibly a purposeful exacerbation of the situation and coordination of their actions, which can be aimed at distracting people’s attention from the acute political situation in the country.”

Ukrainian nuclear power plants are functioning in a normal mode in accordance with norms, rules and nuclear safety regulations. In early April, Energoatom management decided to provide additional safety measures regarding safe exploitation of nuclear reactors, increasing security at NPPs, organization of access control, patrolling of territories and security areas of the NPPs.

On May 17, Ukrainian media started intensified discussion of reports about exceeded radioactivity in Kherson Region (Ukraine) because of an alleged accident and radiation leakage at South Ukraine NPP. According to some reports, the scale of the reported accident was ranging from a fire at the NPP to reactor explosion. By the May 17 evening, Ukrainian media switched to Chernobyl NPP: rumors started appearing that a reactor was burning there, but they were not confirmed.

Hmmm, its a wait and see... I hope its a false report.

Here's what Tass has to say (don't know who to believe on this one):

Authorities deny claims of alleged accident at Volgodonsk NPP

20.05.2007, 19.32

MOSCOW, May 20 (Itar-Tass) -- The Federal Atomic, Environmental and Technical Supervisory Service and the Federal Atomic Energy Agency have denied claims of an alleged accident at the Volgodonsk nuclear power plant.

“The current mode of operation of the Volgodonsk nuclear power plant rules out any accidents,” Federal Atomic Energy Agency spokesman Sergei Novikov told Itar-Tass.

The first unit of the Volgodonsk NPP has been under planned repairs since April 17, while the second unit is still under construction.

“The hull of the future reactor has been installed, but there is no nuclear fuel there,” Novikov said. “Therefore, the nuclear power plant simply cannot have any accidents.”

Either your family is exceedingly well connected, or they've been duped. I cannot find anything of my regular news sites, and something tells me there would be something out there, some where. But it's possible...

Thats Ukraine. This is Chechnya. Hopefully its false, but if it aint, I dread to think what will happen.

One might want to actualy check to see if there are any reactors in Chechenya., and if they are see if they are still online. Hmm, it would seem the closests is near whatever Stalingrad is called now. http://www.rosenergoatom.com/en/nuclear_power_plants/

Maybe there is a research reactor there?

It's worth noticing that Chernobyl wasn't confirmed until after Swedish authorities had ruled out that it was a leak in a Swedish nuclear plant (the radioation detectors picked up radiation on those going in to the power plant), and that the radioation came from Soviet Union.

We'll see what come up in the next few day, although if there was an incident it's likely that it was much smaller than Chernobyl.

The closest one is Balakovo, and ironically, it's the most modern one. We'll see what happens in the following days.

I sincerely hope this proves false.

I think I'll wait and see on this one. Another Chernobyl wouldn't be nice at all... Though modern reactors are fairly safe, there are some old outdated reactors that are still operational in Russia AFAIK.

Hopefully it's false. If it's true I hope it only exploded and didn't go full china syndrom.