![]() Without using bunker buster-type munitions and intentionally trying to blow up the reactor, such an outcome is basically impossible. Ukraine’s reactors, like virtually all modern ones, are, by contrast, sheathed in 4 feet of concrete and steel. Kaku proceeded to wax apocalyptic about how the shelling could “blow the top off” of the reactor and cause a Chernobyl-level accident, despite the fact that the Chernobyl reactor had no containment system at all. Navin was one of the few experts brought on to the cable news networks who even attempted to offer a calm assessment of what we knew and what the risks were, which prompted Shepard Smith and CNBC to cut him off and bring on long time anti-nuclear physicist Michio Kaku, who has spent decade making over-the-top claims about nuclear accidents, memorably asserting in a televised appearance in 1979, that after a fire at the Browns Ferry nuclear plant in 1975, “we almost lost half of Alabama.” My colleague, Seaver Wang, figured this out with about five minutes on Google Maps as he was analyzing the incident in real-time. The camera capturing the footage was positioned in front of the reactors, pointing toward the entrance to the plant and away from the reactors, which you can't see in the video at all. In one particularly egregious incident, CNBC’s Shepard Smith interviewed a former Department of Energy official, Jeff Navin, only to interrupt him to show a looping video of what he described repeatedly as a “strike on the number one reactor by Russian troops.” In reality, even on the darkened video stream, it was clear that the “strike” was actually an illumination flare landing in a parking lot outside the reactor building. Hyperventilating nuclear “experts” blanketed the cable news channels, egged on by anchors who, despite having no idea what they were actually looking at, comfortably freestyled over images captured by a dark CCTV camera. “There are multiple ways this could get very terrible very quick” Joe Cirincione, CNN national security analyst : “Very concerned” about the blaze. “So it is conceivable that one could have another version of that. Graham Allison, Harvard Kennedy School : “We should remember that Chernobyl in ’86 was a meltdown that spewed radioactive material all over Western Europe,’ Allison told a Kyiv-located Cooper. If it blows up, it will be 10 times larger than Chornobyl! Russians must IMMEDIATELY cease the fire, allow firefighters, establish a security zone!” The evacuation of Europe.”ĭmytro Kuleba, Ukraine Minister of Foreign Affairs : “Russian army is firing from all sides upon Zaporizhzhia NPP, the largest nuclear power plant in Europe. Volodymyr Zelensky, President of Ukraine : “If there is an explosion – that’s the end for everyone. Proclamations of imminent explosions spreading radiation across Europe and far beyond-and sensational claims that the reactors had been shelled and were on fire-were rampant as the media engaged in hysterical coverage of the incident. ![]() Last night, a firefight between Russian and Ukrainian forces at the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant raised alarms for officials and the media around the world.
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