Chernobyl survivors warn of eroding nuclear site protections

As the world approaches the 40th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster on April 26, 1986, experts and survivors are warning that the psychological and diplomatic barriers protecting nuclear facilities from military attacks have eroded to dangerous levels. The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone was struck by a Russian drone in February 2025 on the eve of the Munich Security Conference, while Ukraine has accused Russian forces of repeatedly launching drones and missiles along flight paths near the plant in recent weeks. Meanwhile, the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant—the largest in Europe—remains under Russian occupation following its seizure on March 3, 2022, and has experienced its 13th blackout since the invasion began more than four years ago, raising fears of an uncontrolled radiation release that would pose lethal threats to Ukraine and neighboring states. The ongoing Ukraine conflict has fundamentally undermined international norms governing nuclear safety, with both sides engaging in provocative actions around nuclear infrastructure. In August 2024, incendiary drones caused a major fire at one of Zaporizhzhia's cooling towers, while Russian troops have allegedly mined the plant's power units with explosives. Although all six of Zaporizhzhia's reactors are currently shut down, experts warn that the facility requires continuous power for safety functions and that necessary maintenance is not being performed due to severe understaffing and the occupation by Russian personnel rather than Ukrainian state company Energoatom. Alexandra Bell, president of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists—which maintains the Doomsday Clock—stated that world leaders are displaying a dangerous "lack of urgency" and have "not learned the necessary lessons about the potential dangers" of nuclear facilities. Beyond Ukraine, the international taboo against attacking nuclear sites has been further weakened by U.S. and Israeli military operations against Iranian nuclear facilities, including strikes on uranium enrichment facilities in 2024, and ongoing threats from President Trump to annihilate Iranian power plants including the Bushehr facility. Volodymyr Kholosha, who was working at Chernobyl when reactor number four exploded in 1986 and is now president of the Ukrainian Nuclear Society, emphasized that Russia has failed to learn the lessons of that disaster. Survivors of the 1986 evacuation, including Olena Maruzhenko, who was among the 350,000 people displaced from the exclusion zone, expressed profound anxiety about the current military activities near nuclear sites. "This irresponsibility of the enemy and the risks for the surrounding world of a repeat of the disaster are very frightening," said Natalia Dykun, another evacuee. "Irresponsibility and insecurity in relation to nuclear energy and infrastructure is a crime before the whole world."