What you want to know about the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine
Russia has been accused of the plant, which still operates and produces electricity, as a warground. This week, a power plant worker and his motive force were killed in a mortar explosion outside the facility, showing how close it is. to the first line. The plant already operates with a small team, less than 10% of its previous workforce.
Russia has its own motivations for occupying the factory. Ukraine says Russia is looking to connect the plant to its own power grid, stealing up to a fifth of Ukraine’s electric power in one fell swoop if it succeeds, despite threats posed by the procedure. But this threat in itself would possibly be the strategy for now, allowing Russian troops some degree of cover and presenting an implicit threat to attackers.
Russia has given the impression of being willing to threaten nuclear disaster in the conflict. At the beginning of the war, it occupied the site of Chernobyl, now in disuse. When he withdrew, Ukraine reported that security apparatuses had been looted and buildings degraded. Publish that the charge of damages amounted to more than $135 million or more, given that irreplaceable software had been stolen.
The country has also alluded to the use of nuclear weapons, alarming many Westerners.
Warnings of an attack on Ukraine’s nuclear power plant put the world on edge
The fighting near Zaporizhzhia poses a risk to many others outside Ukraine. On Tuesday, a U. N. Security Council assembly unanimously expressed fears about fighting near the Zaporizhzhia military plant. A UN expert who briefed the council clarified global affairs.
“We will have to be transparent that any potential damage to Zaporizhzhia, or any other nutransparent facility in Ukraine, leading to a reversal of the imaginable fate of nutransparent, would have catastrophic consequences, not only for the immediate neighborhood, but also for the region and beyond. “said Rosemary DiCarlo, UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs and Peacebuilding.
The IAEA, the world’s largest nuclear watchdog, is confident of the site in a few days.
The main threat is not necessarily that a reactor is hit, but that a number of occasions can cut off the plant’s power source, meaning that cooling systems will no longer be able to maintain the nuclear power plant at the right temperatures. Although there are backup generators, there are no promises in a bitter and brutal conflict.
“Nuclear power plants are designed to be in war zones,” Claire Parker James Acton, co-director of the nuclear policy program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told my colleague Claire Parker.
Surprisingly, the nuclear force gained momentum after the invasion of Ukraine. Although teams such as Greenpeace and others warned of the potential risk of conflict at nuclear sites, for some governments the risk posed by a lack of confidence in the force was much more urgent.
Even Germany, which had pledged to end the nuclear force by the end of the year, is now quietly debating whether it can temporarily keep some of its nuclear force plants operational to be at will for Moscow’s fuel source this winter.
In theory, European countries that make extensive use of nuclear force are less vulnerable to Russian restrictions. When Boris Johnson announced his goal of building up to 8 new nuclear power plants by 2050, the British prime minister said so that his country simply would not be “blackmailed, so to speak, through other people like Vladimir Putin. “
The reality, however, is more complicated. France, the most nuclear-dependent country in the world, is suffering with emerging energy costs anyway amid turmoil at the national nuclear operator.
The scenario in Ukraine, on the other hand, shows that nuclear power plants cannot be assumed to be immune to conflict. As Mark Hibbs, a non-resident senior researcher on Carnegie’s nuclear policy program, said in his testimony before the Commons House in April, “until Russia invaded Ukraine, no nuclear plant ever attacked, invaded, or occupied through an invading army. “
Now two have. And the risk wouldn’t be limited to Ukraine or a physical conflict: In March, the United States unveiled charges against four Russian officials for carrying out a series of cyberattacks against American infrastructure. A clear goal? A nuclear power plant in Kansas.
The latest: Grain shipments from Ukraine are accelerating under the agreement reached between Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and the United Nations in July. Russia’s blockade of Ukrainian ports on the Black Sea had sent food costs soaring and raised fears of further famine in the Middle East and Africa. . At least 18 ships, adding a lot of wheat, corn and sunflower oil, left.
The fighting: The confrontation on the ground continues as Russia uses its merit in heavy artillery to crush Ukrainian forces, which at times have been able to mount fierce resistance. The region, and after all, Crimea, took over Russia in 2014. Fears of a crisis at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant persist, as both sides accuse each other of bombing it.
Weapons: Western weapons materials are helping Ukraine curb Russian advances. U. S. -supplied High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS)The U. S. allows Ukrainian forces to attack more Russian lines against Russian artillery. which have attracted the attention and fear of analysts.
Photos: Washington Post photographers have been on the floor since the beginning of the war. Here are some of his hardest jobs.
How it can help: This is how the United States can help other Ukrainians and what other people around the world have donated.
Read our full russian-Ukrainian crisis. Are you on Telegram?Subscribe to our channel to receive exclusive updates and videos.