George Lopez, Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C., Professor Emeritus of Peace Studies
"It is rather poignant that during this 11th anniversary week of the Fukushima power plant radioactive leakage disaster, we now must contemplate a worse outcome from the direct military attack and occupation by Russian forces of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southeastern Ukraine. We have no assurances that the military in charge there understand anything about the complex working systems that keep Europe's largest nuclear power plant from a dangerous accidental meltdown. The potential for errors has now increased exponentially. They range from mismanagement of the containment zone, or the complex cooling systems that are absolutely necessary to run this particular plant, to Russian military bombing of facilities that provide the electricity needed to manage the plant. And safety is significantly compromised if reports that food and rest for the professional Ukrainians operating the plants are being compromised by the Russian occupiers are true.
Moscow has a direct responsibility for working with the IAEA to assure more professional control by its own nuclear power experts or others, lest we face a disaster throughout Europe and Russia beyond the experience of Chernobyl. Dare I mention that this takeover is just one, although the largest, of another dozen nuclear power plants in Ukraine that might fall to unskilled and unsuspecting Russian military units."
-George Lopez, Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C., professor emeritus of peace studies
Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, Keough School of Global Affairs
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More featuring Lopez:
Episode 52 of the Kroc Cast features Lopez and other Notre Dame experts discussing Nuclear Politics and Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine
Unprecedented Western sanctions strangling Russian economy - The Hill, 2/28/22
US-EU sanctions will pummel the Russian economy – two experts explain why they are likely to stick and sting - The Conversation, 2/25/22
Will bitcoin help or hinder Ukraine's fight against Russian invasion? -New Scientist, 3/4/22
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