Russian attack on nuclear power plant stirs debate about climate fix
CTV
Russia’s takeover of Europe's largest nuclear power plant in Ukraine should spur companies and policymakers to be more careful in plans to build reactors to fight climate change, nuclear safety experts say.
Russian forces seized the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine on Friday after heavy fighting sparked a huge blaze in a training building at the site. The fire was extinguished and officials said the facility was safe.
But seizure of the reactor, a week after Russian troops took over Ukraine's defunct but still radioactive Chornobyl plant, triggered global alarm about vulnerabilities of nuclear energy to wartime attacks that could unleash deadly radiation.
"You have to take more seriously the need to ensure protection in nuclear plants, not only for natural disasters, but also for manmade ones,” said Edwin Lyman, the director of nuclear power safety at the Union for Concerned Scientists.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, told an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on Friday that the attack on Zaporizhzhia was "incredibly reckless and dangerous. And it threatened the safety of civilians across Russia, Ukraine and Europe."
