The Kursk Nuclear Power Plant, which has reportedly come under fire from Ukraine, has two active reactors, two decommissioned older units and two partly built ones. The two operating reactors are of a so-called RMBK design, a design found at the Chernobyl facility.
Asked for background on the threats to the Kursk NPP, nuclear expert Prof. Steven Starr, first cited IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi’s basic concern, that the two RMBK Chernobyl-type nuclear reactors in operation at the Kursk NPP are not protected with a concrete dome, and their reactors and spent fuel pools, which sit next to the reactors, are exposed and vulnerable to direct attack from artillery.
He explained that a strike with heavy artillery—or a missile with a large warhead—could breach the reactors, as well as the spent fuel pools. The latter contain huge amounts of highly radioactive spent fuel that has to be constantly cooled. Spent fuel pools contain some of the highest concentrations of radioactivity on the planet. He offered that it may be possible to seriously damage a spent fuel pool with a drone.
