Russia’s nuclear threats – In wartime, how safe are Ukraine’s nuclear power plants? | DW Documentary

From DW Documentary.

With the Russian invasion of Ukraine, fears of a nuclear accident have returned. In the very first days of the war, Russian troops occupied the exclusion zone around what’s left of Chernobyl. Shortly afterwards, they took control of Zaporizhzhia’s nuclear power plant.

Russian troops withdrew from Chernobyl after a few weeks. But Zaporizhzhia, Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, has effectively been occupied since March 2022. The plant has come under frequent attack, the power supply has been interrupted and fires have broken out. Experts have repeatedly warned of a possible nuclear disaster. How safe are nuclear power plants in a time of war? And how is the Russian occupation affecting the nuclear plant’s Ukrainian employees? What can the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) do?

The documentary follows three employees of Ukrainian nuclear power plants and describes the consequences of the Russian occupation. These include fear, illegal interrogations and torture. For IAEA chief Rafael Grossi, staff working conditions are the biggest cause for concern.

Director Pavlo Cherepin’s involvement in the film brought back personal memories. He learned the word evacuation early in his childhood, following the Chernobyl reactor accident. One of the worst nuclear disasters in history, Chernobyl has not been forgotten here in Ukraine — a country that renounced nuclear weapons in 1994 in return for security guarantees.

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