Russia would likely strike the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine in a number of ways, experts said, as considerations resurface around the disputed nuclear facility.
Russia “could intentionally try to create a radiological accident” at the facility, which would make the plant’s emergency systems redundant, Darya Dolzikova, a researcher at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) tank in London, UK, told Newsweek.
If Russia chooses to “sabotage facilities,” Jack Watling, a senior floor warfare researcher, told Newsweek, Moscow could simply “damage critical infrastructure” and blame Kiev.
Moscow could also impose tariffs at locations in and around the site, “attributing the detonation to Ukrainian attacks,” Watling added. The comments coincided with a new RUSA report, written by Dolzikova and Watling, which further warned that Russia could hotel planned attacks on nuclear facilities to coerce Ukraine’s partners for fear of unhoteled escalation to nuclear weapons. However, the report highlights the stark difference between a remission of a power plant fate and a targeted nuclear attack.
Newsweek reached out to Russia’s Defense Ministry for an email comment.
The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant was seized by Russian forces at the beginning of the war, the Ukrainian workers’ corps continued to take care of the facility. It is located in the Zaporizhzhia region of southern Ukraine, which the Kremlin said it annexed in September 2022. However, this claim is not identified through the foreign community.
Since February 2022, alarm bells have been ringing about the protection of the largest nuclear power plant of its kind in Europe. On March 4, 2022, it is the first civilian nuclear power plant in operation to suffer an armed attack, with a fire breaking out at the facility.
“If there is an explosion, it will be the end for all of us: the end of Europe, the evacuation of Europe,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said at the time.
On Tuesday, Ukraine’s national nuclear force organization, Energoatom, said a group of workers stationed across Russia at the nuclear force plant were “looking for tactics to evacuate,” with Ukrainian fighters “already close. “
On April 28, the head of the International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA), Rafael Mariano Grossi, said the organization’s experts at the facility had been “again forced to take cover” following warnings of missile attacks and the “sound of uninterrupted shelling. “in the distance. “”
“A landmine exploded near the site,” Grossi said in a statement. The IAEA is at the Zaporizhzhia facility to assess the protection of the plant, which is located near the front lines of the fighting in southern Ukraine.
The day before, the British Ministry of Defense said Russian forces had placed “sandbag positions” on the roofs of several buildings at the plant’s reactor.
It was the “first indication” of the integration of the reactor buildings into tactical army planning, the ministry said on Twitter. This “very likely increases the threat of damage” to the facility’s security systems fighting around the plant, the ministry added.
“The preparation of firing positions at a nuclear power plant suggests the goal of carrying out a planned defense of the structure,” Watling said. “It’s about making the site a target for the army and increasing the likelihood that it will come under fire. “
These combat positions highlight “the serious risk it poses to the power plant, and, by extension, its civilian body of workers, through ongoing military activity,” Dolzikova added.
Experts say a reactor is unlikely to be directly damaged, leading to a catastrophic reversal of fate at the facility.
On Friday, the RUSI report argued that probably the biggest risk to Ukraine’s nuclear facilities is the failure of key systems or human error.
This may potentially result in a situation closer to the 2011 Fukushima nuclear fate turn after an earthquake and tsunami in Japan, the report said, than a repeat of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
Unlike Fukushima, however, reactors at the Zaporizhzhia plant have not been operational for months, Dolzikova added. fate,” he said.
Moscow and Kiev have continually accused others of attacking the nuclear power plant and of “nuclear terrorism. “The bombing caused the factory to lose access to external force several times before being restored.