A Second Chernobyl
Commentary
Ukraine, the scene of the Chernobyl nuclear plant catastrophe in 1986, may soon provide an encore, only this time it won’t be an accident. The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power complex, Europe’s largest, has been bombarded by artillery, rockets, and drones during the Russian-Ukraine War.
Shelling Zaporizhzhia “is completely unacceptable and must be avoided,” warned the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Aug. 6, saying it could lead to “the very real risk of a nuclear disaster.”
“Any attack to nuclear plants is … suicidal,” U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres stressed in condemning the attacks.
Although there’s no dispute that the nuclear plant is being attacked, which army is doing the attacking is very much in dispute. According to Energoatom, Ukraine’s nuclear power plant operator, the Russians are the attackers, their shelling having led to partial shutdowns and damage to three radiation monitors around the storage facility for spent nuclear fuel. According to Ukraine’s ambassador to the IAEA, Russian shelling is designed to cause electricity blackouts in southern Ukraine, which Zaporizhzhia continues to service….