Russian actions at Zaporizhzhia show need for better legal protections of nuclear installations
Posted: 31st October 2022
By Luis Rodriguez, Lauren Sukin | October 28, 2022
The IAEA Support and Assistance Mission to Zaporizhzhya (ISAMZ) arrived at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine on September 1, 2022. The mission comprised IAEA nuclear safety, security, and safeguards staff. (Photo credit: D. Candano Laris/IAEA)
Russian forces swarm into Chernobyl, forcing the plant’s operators to work tireless, multi-day shifts with their lives under threat. The Romanian government allocates millions of dollars to quickly produce radiation-blocking iodine pills. Purchases of private, luxury fall-out shelters spike. This is not 1986; it is 2022. Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has brought back Cold War anxieties, not least of which has been the re-emergence of nuclear fear-mongering and the looming threat of nuclear accidents.