NYT: Russians damaged enriched uranium lab in Kharkiv over 70 times

The Russians have already damaged the laboratory in Kharkiv, where the experimental device “Neutron Source” is located, 74 times. There is enough enriched uranium there to contaminate a significant part of the city if dispersed.

This is reported by The New York Times, citing the words of the Ukrainian authorities.

The Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology, which at one time participated in the creation of the first Soviet atomic bombs, agreed in 2010 to stop working with uranium and, as the US insisted, transferred its reserves to Russia within the framework of nuclear non-proliferation.

The NYT writes that despite this, there are still extremely dangerous materials there, including uranium in the "Neutron Source", enriched much more than fuel for nuclear power plants. The institute does not disclose exactly how much uranium is there.

After the invasion of 2022, scientists stopped the experiments and put the Neutron Source into long-term shutdown mode. But the uranium remained — as did the danger of its leakage.

The “neutron source” consists of two elements: a core about the size of a bus, complete with metal radiation shields, and an attached particle accelerator about 27 meters long.

The United States partially financed the construction in exchange for Ukraine giving up enriched uranium suitable for making bombs.

Ukrainian officials say the building where the device is located has been damaged by drones, missiles and artillery so many times that it can hardly be considered an accident. The laboratory building is located just 22 kilometers from the front line.

“It’s scary, but we’re used to it,” says the deputy chief engineer at the Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology Oleksandr Bykhun, Ukraine’s leading nuclear science center, where the Neutron Source is located.

The building was built without taking into account possible shelling — the walls cannot withstand a direct hit. Daily explosions outside make the control room tremble, and inside, the shock wave of one of them knocked the plaster off the wall near the device.

Ukrainian law enforcement officers have reported suspicions to five Russian servicemen who, according to investigators, deliberately fired on the facility. A direct hit could have contaminated the area, home to about 640 000 people. Ukrainian prosecutors have accused the officers of ecocide — an attempt to use environmental damage as a tool of war.

In 2022, a shell hit a transformer substation, leaving the building without electricity for several months. Scientists were forced to use backup heating to prevent the cooling water from freezing and damaging the aluminum coating on the uranium fuel rods.

Despite the long shutdown of the "Neural Source", scientists in other laboratories of the institute continue experiments with thermonuclear fusion energy using radioactive hydrogen.

The instituteʼs acting head Mykola Azarienkov says they have collected enough data for a scientific paper, which they plan to present at a conference this fall.

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