Chernobyl campaigner Adi Roche warns of global nuclear threat as power plant attacked in Ukraine
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The world must face the stark reality of a looming global nuclear threat following fresh drone strikes near the Zaporizhzhia power plant in Ukraine, Chernobyl campaigner Adi Roche has warned.
“It is a nightmare scenario,” Ms Roche said on the eve of UN Chernobyl remembrance day on Friday which recalls the horror of the 1986 nuclear disaster.
But that tragedy could pale into insignificance if Zaporizhzhia in southern Ukraine, Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, is damaged by or as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, she said.
“We have never had a situation in any war where something like this has happened. This war has changed the face of warfare,” she said.
“Putin is weaponising nuclear power facilities.
“The world was shocked by the scale of Chernobyl’s impact but I don’t think we even have a model for what might happen if there’s an incident at Zaporizhzhia.
“We are looking down the barrel of loaded gun and one of these days, our luck is going to run out.”
Drone strikes were reported near the plant again on April 7 in what was the first direct military action against the plant since November 2022, when Russia assumed control of the facility.
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors deployed to monitor the site reported three drone impacts, none of which damaged critical nuclear safety or security systems.
But Russia has recently announced plans to restart the plant, greatly increasing the danger of a nuclear accident.
The IAEA board of governors held an emergency meeting on April 17, passing a motion to call for the immediate return of control of the plant to Ukraine and the urgent withdrawal of unauthorised military and other Russian personnel.
Since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its takeover of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant site in February 2022, Ms Roche’s Chernobyl Children’s International has been advocating for all nuclear facilities to be deemed a "no war zone" and for world leaders to invoke the Hague Convention which defines any attack on a nuclear facility to be a war crime.
Ms Roche said as the world remembers Chernobyl on Friday, the UN should consider, once the security situation allows, the deployment of UN peacekeepers around such sites.
“The accident at Chernobyl happened as a result of faults in the technology and human error,” she said.
“However, if a nuclear accident happens at Zaporizhzhia, it could very well be intentional. We cannot overstate the current critical situation and nuclear threat in Ukraine.
“We must do everything in our power to prevent Zaporizhzhia from becoming the next ‘Chernobyl’. We neglect Ukraine at our peril.”
The Zaporizhzhia plant was built during the Soviet era and houses six pressurised water reactors, at least two of which are currently operational, and help provide power to up to four million homes in Kyiv.
However, its strategic location has made it a contested site between Russian and Ukrainian forces since the early days of the war.
Military experts believe Russia has used the plant as a “sheltered” artillery park, firing on Ukrainian positions in the belief that Ukraine would not fire back to avoid a nuclear accident.