How to avoid the unthinkable when Europe’s largest nuclear power plant finds itself on the frontline of war? As UN inspectors prepare to visit Zaporizhzhia in the hopes of securing a facility hit by power outages and alleged attacks, we ask about accusations of Russian shelling from the compound, the risk of a Chernobyl-style meltdown and the toll it’s already taken on a complex that's now under Russian control but still operated by under-pressure Ukrainian staff.
The plant has a strategic location as Kyiv mounts launches a counter-offensive in the south and amid UN-led efforts to make Zaporizhzhia a demilitarised zone. More broadly, as Europe braces for a cold and expensive winter and as nuclear is touted as the carbon-free alternative to Russian natural gas, how does the fighting around Zaporizhzhia inform the decisions we take to ensure our energy security?
Produced by Alessandro Xenos, Imen Mellaz and Aline Bottin
