The talk about Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, which is close to the front line in Ukraine, is getting scarier. International figures are warning that a major accident could happen.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres thinks that damaging the Zaporizhzhia plant could be “suicide,” and the president of Turkey has said that no one wants another Chornobyl, which was the worst nuclear accident in history and happened when Ukraine was ruled by the Soviet Union.
At the start of the war, Russia took over the site on the left bank of the River Dnieper. This month, both Russia and Ukraine say the other side has been shelling the site over and over again.
Each side says the other is planning to start trouble. Ukraine says that a Russian film crew has already set up a shelling to blame on Kyiv. Russian defence officials have made a map that shows how a radioactive cloud could spread from the plant in Ukraine to nearby countries like Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia.
The nuclear agency of Ukraine says that rocket fire has already hurt three of the four power lines that connect the plant to Ukraine. The agency thinks that if the last source of power goes out, nuclear fuel will start to melt, releasing radioactive materials into the environment, and diesel generators will not be a long-term fix.
“The power from a nuclear power plant can’t go anywhere. It must get energy from somewhere. If all of its customers leave at once, the power plant is “swamped,” the power units turn off in an emergency, and there is a “black-out.”
The most important thing is the safety of the Ukrainian workers who have to run the plant while it is occupied.
Rafael Grossi, who is in charge of the IAEA, asked that they be left alone to do their jobs “without threats or pressure.” Dr. Wenman says that the biggest risk of a nuclear accident is the human factor, whether it’s because of chronic fatigue or stress: “And that goes against all the safety rules.”
In a letter sent to the international community on Thursday, dozens of workers at the plant said, “We can professionally control nuclear fission, but we are powerless in the face of people’s recklessness and madness.”
