Cooling towers of the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, which is closest to Russia. Photo: Shutterstock
Ukraine and the European Union are tied to energy from Russia, says Herman Damveld. After all, in addition to natural gas, the EU also imports a lot of oil, coal and uranium.
Ukraine was previously part of the Soviet Union and, like Russia, has quite a few nuclear power plants in operation, no fewer than fifteen of them. Initially there were nuclear power plants that needed graphite, the same type as those in Chernobyl. But there, as we know, was one of the greatest nuclear disasters in world history in 1986.
The other nuclear power stations are more similar in design to those of Borssele and came into operation between 1981 and 2004. They are all Russian-made nuclear power plants, spread over four locations. In fact, the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant has six units and this is the nuclear power plant closest to Russia. This nuclear power plant was taken over by the Russians on Thursday night, after shelling that started a fire. According to the Ukrainian State Body for Nuclear Safety, all six units have been shut down as planned and no radioactivity has been released.
Nearly 60 percent of Ukraine’s electricity comes from nuclear power plants and another 30 percent from coal-fired power plants. In short, this country is very dependent on nuclear energy. In the current situation, this raises the question of whether Russia will want to destroy the nuclear power plants. My guess is that it isn’t obvious. Suppose Russia really wants to occupy Ukraine: then it will be difficult to keep everything under control if part of the country has no electricity. Occupying nuclear power plants is therefore more obvious.
Ever been bombed
Nuclear power plants have also been bombed. In 1981, Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor was destroyed by an Israeli airstrike just before fuel was to be loaded into it for the first time. Because the reactor was not yet in operation, no radioactivity was released. In 1987, Iraq in turn bombed the Busher nuclear power plants in Iran. At that time, these nuclear power stations were 80 percent completed. In short, there is experience with shutting down nuclear power plants under construction. But things are different when it comes to nuclear power plants in operation.
Take Chernobyl as an example, also in Ukraine. No bombs were dropped on it, but the plant exploded on April 25, 1986, causing a major nuclear disaster. The radioactive cloud also drifted to the Netherlands, where in May 1986 the government decided that the cows had to be stabled and leafy vegetables such as spinach had to be destroyed.
The consequences for Ukraine were much worse. In 2006, the German Department of Doctors for Peace cited an additional 10,000 to 25,000 deaths from cancer. In January 2018, 1.8 million people in Ukraine had radiation victim status, of which 377,589 were children.
Compensation to 36,000 widows
In 2019, the government of Ukraine paid benefits to 36,000 widows of men who died as a result of the Chernobyl accident. Of the 830,000 young people deployed in cleanup operations, the so-called liquidators, 112,000 to 125,000 had already died in 2011, the death rate being five times higher than that of their peers, data from 2020 shows. The damage from the Chernobyl accident in 1986 was converted 210 billion euros.
I do not expect Putin to want to cause a second nuclear disaster in Ukraine, especially since the Russians themselves will have to deal with it. Especially if it is just a westerly wind at the time of a disaster.
Not only Ukraine, the European Union is also tied to energy from Russia. We read repeatedly that Russia is the cause of high natural gas prices and that nuclear energy can help to become less dependent on Russia. However, this is not true, according to some calculations. For this we used the European Union’s Statistical Pocketbook of 28 September 2021 and the 2020 Annual Report of the Euratom Supply Agency (ESA) of 10 July 2021.
Also coal, oil and uranium from Russia
This states that in addition to natural gas, the European Union also obtains coal, oil and uranium from Russia. No less than 37 percent of the natural gas that the EU uses comes from Russia. For coal it is hardly less, namely 32 percent. And 26 percent of the oil the EU imports comes from Russia.
Then the dependence on nuclear energy. Several Eastern European countries have nuclear power plants and have traditional links with Russia, which supplied the nuclear power plants. Even today, they are still dependent on Russia in three ways.
About 20 percent of the uranium used in European nuclear power plants comes from Russia. In order to be able to use uranium in a nuclear power plant, it is first necessary to convert the solid into gaseous uranium, which is called conversion. The factories for this conversion are located in Russia, among other places, and they provide 24 percent of the uranium that the EU needs. To be able to use uranium, an increase in the percentage of fissile uranium is necessary. This is called enrichment. Russia is responsible for 26 percent of the EU’s uranium enrichment. In short, here too there is a strong dependence on Russia.
More gas from Groningen?
Lately I have heard regularly that more gas must be extracted from Groningen in order to be less dependent on Russia and that energy prices will fall in this way.
David Smulders, professor of energy technology at Eindhoven University of Technology, this newspaper to extract 12 billion cubic meters of gas from Groningen : he believes this can be done safely by simultaneously injecting 12 billion cubic meters of nitrogen into the gas field.
However, Smeulders is not talking about the electricity needed to remove nitrogen from the air and inject it. Using data from Gasunie about the new nitrogen plant in Zuidbroek, I can calculate that Smulders’ plan requires a power station the same size as the Borssele nuclear power station. Are we going to build a nuclear power station at Eemshaven for safe gas extraction from Groningen?
Hardly any influence on the price
In addition, I doubt whether more gas from Groningen means that the gas price will fall. After all, according to the 2020 Annual Report of the Russian company Gazprom, this company exported some 175 billion cubic meters of gas to the EU in 2020. More gas from Groningen will hardly affect the gas price. It is Russia that largely dictates the price and we have to give in to that, as long as we do not yet obtain massive energy from sun and wind. In other words: energy that does not have to come from any foreign country.
Herman Damveld is an independent researcher and publicist on (nuclear) energy
As a logged in PREMIUM reader you can comment on this article. We have drawn up a number of house rules for this which you can read here.