- Bumrah takes four as India bowl out Bangladesh for 149
- Sri Lanka 134-1 to take upper hand in first New Zealand Test
- Bayern's Kompany calls for game cap for players amid strike talks
- Christie's expands Hong Kong footprint in hope of art market 'pickup'
- Sultry screen legend Sophia Loren turns 90
- Cambodian opposition figure in court on incitement charge
- Bumrah takes three wickets to have Bangladesh in trouble at 112-8
- Kimchi threat as heatwave drives up South Korea cabbage prices
- UK economic data delivers fresh blow to new govt
- China to 'gradually resume' seafood imports from Japan after Fukushima ban
- India minister blames dam release for flooding
- O'Rourke strikes early for Kiwis as Sri Lanka trail by three
- Deep takes two as Bangladesh totter in reply to India's 376
- Israel pounds Lebanon's Hezbollah after device blasts
- Revolution or mirage? Controversy surrounds new Alzheimer's drugs
- Ashwin's 113 powers India to 376 in Bangladesh Test
- Biden opens home to 'Quad' leaders for farewell summit
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- Wallabies sense 'massive' chance to upset All Blacks
- Taiwan questions two in probe into Hezbollah pagers
- Viral Korean Olympic shooter scores first acting role as assassin
- Farrell set for 'challenge' of downing Bordeaux in Top 14
- Springbok Etzebeth diverts attention from looming caps record
- Inter on a high ahead of Milan derby as Napoli face Juve test
- Bank of Japan leaves key interest rate unchanged
- Arnold quits after six years in charge of Australia
- Asian markets track Wall Street record to extend global rally
- Guirassy and Anton to return to Stuttgart with new side Dortmund
- Marseille bidding to continue 'almost perfect' Ligue 1 start
- Arnold quits as coach of Australia men's football team
- Harris and Oprah hold star-studded US election rally
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- Perez leading new-look Villarreal charge against leaders Barca
- Man City face Arsenal in Premier League title showdown, Postecoglou under pressure
- Fake celebrity endorsements, snubs plague US presidential race
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- World leaders to gather at UN as crises grow and conflicts rage
- How plastic pollution poses challenge for Canada marine conservation
- Scientists track plastic waste in pristine Canada marine park
- South Africa's Buhai grabs LPGA Queen City lead
- Japan inflation firms to 2.8% ahead of BoJ rate decision
- Russia's Kadyrov accuses Musk of 'remotely disabling' his Cybertruck
- Titan sub had to abort a dive days before fatal implosion: testimony
- Ohtani makes MLB history with first 50-homer, 50-steal season
- Ohtani eyes MLB history after surpassing 50 stolen bases, 49 homers
- Ohtani eyes MLB history after surpassing 50 stolen bases
- Barca downed by Monaco as Arsenal held in Champions League stalemate
- Head's 'good night at office' after century seals win over England
- Dubois seeks legitimacy with Joshua scalp
Ukraine: a nuclear-powered nation under fire
The Russian shelling of Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine -- the largest in Europe -- has sparked international outrage and fears over the country's 15 operational reactors.
The Zaporizhzhia reactors, apparently undamaged by the attack, were taken over by invading Russian forces that have also stationed themselves at Chernobyl, the site of the worst civilian nuclear disaster in history.
Experts have condemned the attack, while stressing that Ukraine's modern reactors are built to withstand most human-caused and natural impacts.
Here's what we know about nuclear power in Ukraine:
- Nuclear-powered nation -
Ukraine is the seventh-largest producer of nuclear electricity in the world, according to International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) figures for 2020.
The country, which relies on nuclear energy for more than half of its power supply, has made significant improvements in nuclear safety over the years, experts say.
Zaporizhzhia has six of the country's 15 reactors and can create enough energy for four million homes.
The plant is "relatively modern", said Mark Wenman of Imperial College London, noting its reactor components are housed inside a heavily reinforced containment building that can "withstand extreme external events, both natural and man-made, such as an aircraft crash or explosions".
"The design is a lot different to the Chernobyl reactor, which did not have a containment building, and hence there is no real risk, in my opinion, at the plant now [that] the reactors have been safely shut down," he told the Science Media Centre.
The battle at the site caused a fire at an adjacent training facility, IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said early Friday.
He said only one of the six reactors was operating at about 60 percent, another had been undergoing maintenance, two were in "safety-controlled shutdown" and the last two "were already being held in reserve and are operating in low-power mode".
Ukrainian monitors say there has been no spike in radiation.
- Conflict fears -
Earlier this week Greenpeace warned that the Russian invasion risks a "nightmare scenario" at one of the country's nuclear sites, potentially involving an explosion that caused cooling systems to fail and large amounts of radioactivity to be spread on the wind.
This, the charity said in an analysis focusing on Zaporizhzhia, could render large parts of Europe and Russia "uninhabitable for at least many decades".
The main risk now is a loss of the power supply as the plant needs water and electricity to operate the safety systems and cool the reactor core, according to Karine Herviou, Deputy Director General of the French Institute for Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety.
But the site has emergency generators, which normally have fuel to operate for seven to 10 days, as well as water reserves.
The other risk is direct aggression.
Herviou said the containment buildings offer protection to a point "but it all depends on what we are talking about".
An attack that hit another part of the plant could affect safety systems, she added.
- Chernobyl -
Ukraine, which has significant uranium reserves, began developing nuclear power in the 1970s -- when it was still a part of the USSR -- with the construction of Chernobyl.
The 1986 Chernobyl disaster left hundreds dead and spread radioactive contamination west across Europe.
Damaged Reactor No. 4 was initially covered by a temporary sarcophagus, then by a containment arch completed in 2017.
Russia seized the site on February 24.
The Ukrainian authorities have recently noted an increase in radiation at Chernobyl, but the IAEA has said the levels measured pose no danger to the public.
Experts have speculated that military activity around the site may have kicked up contaminated dust.
Ukraine's current stock of reactors are Soviet or Russian-designed VVERs, which are pressurised water reactors.
"Ukraine receives most of its nuclear services and nuclear fuel from Russia," says the World Nuclear Association, although it has noted that the country had already begun "reducing this dependence".
The nuclear operator Energoatom has recently turned to the US firm Westinghouse to build new reactors.
M.Odermatt--BTB