Those fears have been renewed in the past two weeks after shelling intensified around the massive Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest, which has been under Russian control since March.
Attacks on the compound, which have intensified as fighting in southern Ukraine, have fueled concerns about the specter of nuclear fallout, leading the United Nations watchdog and world leaders to demand that a mission be allowed to visit the site and assess the damage. .
There has been a barrage of accusations from all sides about security and military action in and around the plant. The lack of independent access to the factory makes it impossible to verify what is happening there. Last month, several rockets and shells fell on the factory grounds, according to satellite images analyzed by CNN.
So how real is the danger of fighting?
Nuclear experts are keen to play down some of the more alarming warnings, explaining that the main threat is closer to the plant itself and does not warrant Europe-wide warnings. Experts are particularly wary of any comparison with the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, a repeat of which is incredibly unlikely, they said.
“It’s not very likely that this plant will be destroyed,” Leon Cizelj, president of the European Nuclear Society, told CNN. “In the very unlikely event, the radioactive problem would mostly affect Ukrainians living nearby,” rather than spreading across eastern Europe as happened with Chernobyl, he said.
Russia’s invasion sparked fears about nuclear security at the start of the war
In late February and March, Russia’s occupation of Chernobyl in northern Ukraine raised fears that safety standards inside the exclusion zone could be compromised.
During the first week of the war, the factory and the surrounding area fell into the hands of Russian troops. They were withdrawn on March 31, according to Ukraine’s nuclear agency.
Ukraine’s government said Russian forces looted and destroyed a laboratory near the abandoned nuclear power plant, which was used to monitor radioactive waste.
