A Catastrophic Nuclear Meltdown at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine is Suddenly in the Realm of Possibility

The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine is Europe's largest. In March, Russian forces captured the plant and a crew of Ukrainians are maintaining operations at the plant — effectively at gun point.

In recent weeks, fighting around the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power plant has intensified, causing some damage to the plant and raising the prospect that in the context of armed conflict, a catastrophic nuclear accident becomes a very real possibility.

In this episode, we are joined by Jon Wolfsthal, senior advisor at Global Zero and a member of board of Science and Security at Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. We kick off by discussing how Zaporizhzhia operates in normal circumstances and how the fighting may have impacted current plant operations. We then discuss what a catastrophic event at the power plant may look like. This includes the global impact of  a nuclear meltdown at Zaporizhzhia.

Transcript available here

https://open.spotify.com/episode/4LlqRYc8S7LG6NGRT6UIY3?si=1f7fc8d0981…