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Nuclear time4/19/2023 ![]() The Ukrainians, joined by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, have accused the Russians of using the plant as a “nuclear shield” for troops, weapons and ammunition, and of firing in and around it. Instead, the shelling has intensified this month, along with a war of words. But getting mortal enemies to stand back has not proved easy. The I.A.E.A., the United Nations and Western leaders have arranged just such a mission. “All these pillars have been compromised, if not entirely violated, at one point or another during this crisis,” he warned. The director general of the I.A.E.A., Rafael Mariano Grossi, recently outlined seven indispensable conditions critical for nuclear safety and security, which included the physical integrity of the plant, off-site power supply, cooling systems and emergency preparedness. Loss of electrical power to the plant could have led to a meltdown. The Times reported that during the initial Russian invasion, a large-caliber bullet pierced an outer wall of one of the six reactors, while an artillery shell struck an electrical transformer filled with flammable cooling oil at another. A Times report on Tuesday detailed what that means: artillery shells exploding and tracer rounds streaking through the complex, while a skeletal crew of Ukrainian technicians maintains the plant under the guns of an estimated 500 Russian soldiers. Seized by the Russians shortly after they invaded Ukraine six months ago, the sprawling plant on the Dnipro River is now on the front line of the war. But the potential for a massive disaster when lethal shells land among the nuclear reactors, cooling towers, machine rooms and radioactive waste storage sites is real and present. Zaporizhzhia is a more modern and far safer model than Chernobyl, theoretically capable of withstanding far greater damage. ![]() ![]() And with Chernobyl as a shared traumatic memory, Russians and Ukrainians know better than most nations the horror of a nuclear catastrophe. Yet the recent agreement to allow grain shipments out of Ukraine demonstrated that international pressure on Russia to prevent the conflict from spreading beyond the battlefields can work. Sanity is a hard sell in a war in which Russia is waging a scorched-earth campaign to bring Ukraine to its knees, and Ukraine is fighting for its survival. Ukrainian technicians were able to reconnect the plant to the national power grid on Friday, averting disaster. In the latest scare, shelling on Thursday damaged external power lines, threatening a critical power supply to the facility. It would not be a minute too soon: Artillery shells are landing with chilling regularity in and around the facility, Europe’s largest nuclear power station. There were reports on Saturday that the International Atomic Energy Agency has a team of experts ready to visit Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant within days.
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