“Both hostages and essential workers” : such is the condition of the operators of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant according to The New York Times. These Ukrainians have a heavy responsibility “to prevent a disaster while working under the watchful eye of Russian snipers”.
Disaster would have almost happened already. At the beginning of March, in the first days of the invasion, Russian ammunition and debris reached the plant, located in southern Ukraine.
One shell in particular “hit an electrical transformer within Reactor No. 6, which was filled with flammable coolant oil, plant employees later learned”. According to Oleksii, one of the anonymous engineers quoted by the American newspaper:
“It’s a happy coincidence that it didn’t burn.”
A particularly vulnerable site
Pride of Ukraine, Zaporizhia, the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, was built in the 1980s and