Last week, Krall et al from @Stanford, published this thought-provoking paper in @pnas. It found that small modular reactors (SMRs) could increase the volume and complexity of radioactive waste compared to a large PWR (like Hinkley C) by up to 35 times 🧵pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pn… Caveat – all that follows is my assessment (as an expert in radioactive waste, not nuclear reactor design) of the paper, so I’d love you to weigh in with your thoughts☢️

News is emerging of #Chernobyl having it's electricity supply cut. This is not great. What are the potential issues? 🧵 1. spent nuclear fuel from reactors 1 and 3 is currently stored in a pond awaiting transfer to a more secure dry store (ISF-2 - see @W_Nuclear_News for more: world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/First…)

It looks possible that there has been a "spike" in gamma radiation in the #Chernobyl exlcusion zone: saveecobot.com/en/radiation-m… This appears to be based on a single data point, so caution should be taken not to over-interpret at this stage. Around the #Chernobyl power plant, the gamma radiation looks to have increased by around 20 times compared with a few days ago.

Oh crumbs, @BBCNews have verified this video footage of tanks outside the entrance to the #Chernobyl nuclear power station. It's reported that there was fierce fighting before the site was taken.

https://twitter.com/gt_lozt/status/1496882891401351174

Is this bad news? Well any shooting of ammunition could result in the piercing of containment buildings, like those currently storing spent nuclear fuel from the defuelled reactors, and the new safe confiment structure which contains the striken reactor unit 4. #Chernobyl