Policy Brief: Nuclear Safety During Military Invasion

Nuclear safety and security of NPP is perhaps one of the most important issues for all of humanity. The consequences of the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 still remain a terrible memory for the whole world. More than 200,000 hectares of land still remain potentially dangerous for humans due to radioactive pollution. This event contributed to the development of IAEA nuclear safety standards.

For 38 years, humanity has almost forgotten about this disaster, and Russia seems to have resolved reminders of the nuclear danger. In 2022, in the first days of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia occupied Europe’s largest Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, turning it into a military facility. Today, this is the biggest threat to the nuclear security of Ukraine and the whole world. Unfortunately, the presence of Russian military equipment at the nuclear facility, as well as the continuation of missile attacks on infrastructure facilities from the Russian side do not exclude any scenario. During the two years of occupation of the NPP, more than 150 gross violations of the plant’s operation were recorded. The most threatening situations were the complete blackouts of the NPP and the blowing up of the Kakhovska dam

Although the situation is different from the accident at the Chernobyl NPP, the ZNPP is twice as large as the Chernobyl NPP, and the consequences can be worse and more unpredictable. There are six reactors of the VVER-1000 type located at the station.Although the VVER reactors appear to be structurally more protected than the RBMK reactors, a military seizure of the facility could have worse and more unpredictable consequences.

This is an example of how a civilian nuclear facility can turn into a weapon and become an instrument of terror for an entire continent. And here we are talking not only about Ukraine, but about the fact that there is practically no opposition to such actions.

Dixi Group think tank collaboratively with experts from various institutions developed a policy brief addressing the safety of nuclear power stations in support of the African Peace Mission and Ukraine Peace Formula.

Policy brief addresses UN reform, the safety of nuclear power stations during armed conflicts. The main task is to provide an understanding of the key challenges that the Russian military occupation of Nuclear Power Stations poses for the safety of the nuclear industry on the African continent.

• Highlight the limitation of the existing international regulation, mechanisms, and institutional capacity to respond to the invasion of a nuclear installation by another state.
• Setting the agenda for dialogue on nuclear safety based on the interest of African countries.
• To provide recommendations that African countries and the AU can initiate at the regional and international level to ensure the safe development of the nuclear industry on the continent.

A group of Ghanaian, South African, and Ukrainian civil society organisations is calling on the African Union and delegates of African states to lead the way for safer nuclear energy development and fewer opportunities for nuclear-armed states to threaten disarmed nations, through the reform of the United Nations Security Council.

Similar to the Chornobyl catastrophe, which accelerated the development of IAEA nuclear safety standards, the Russian war on Ukraine provides an opportunity for African states, in partnership with Ukraine, to develop solutions that would prevent armed attacks on nuclear facilities, which are currently not within its UN-mandated scope.

The experts specifically, call on the AU and African states to:

•  Protect peaceful nuclear power plants by approving new binding international legislation that prohibits military attacks on nuclear facilities. Nuclear technology is a potential option to support African economic development.
• The occupation of the largest operational nuclear power plant in Europe by Russian military forces, in violation of all nuclear safety principles, must be stopped and never repeated.
•  Many African countries recently voted for a UN resolution calling on Russia to remove its military forces from the Ukrainian nuclear power station.

These recommendations were presented at the seminar “The African Peace Mission and Ukraine Peace Formula: Strategic Engagements on Regional Security, Nuclear Safety, and Human Rights” ahead of the African Union Mid-Year Coordination Meeting taking place on 18-21 July in Accra.