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POLITICS

Russia makes nuclear plants tactical military targets

Saturday, April 25, 2026 · from 1 podcast
1 SOURCEThe Economist
  • Russia's war in Ukraine made nuclear plants military targets, shattering a global taboo.
  • International laws are outdated, unable to stop a nation from turning a reactor into a fortress.
  • The root cause of Chernobyl - state secrecy over safety - persists in modern Russia.

Nuclear power plants are now military targets. The unwritten rule that civilian reactors were off-limits in war is gone, shattered by Russia’s occupation of Chernobyl and Zaporizhzhia in 2022. This isn't just an escalation; it's a fundamental change in the global risk calculus.

On The Intelligence from The Economist, Harvard historian Serhii Plohi argues that the global safety regime was built for peacetime. International law treats reactors like dams - civilian infrastructure to be avoided. But the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has no mandate to intervene when a country turns its own plant into a fortress, as Russia did at Zaporizhzhia.

The original Chernobyl disaster offers a grim precedent for this political disregard for safety. The RBMK reactor didn't fail on technical merits alone. It was a dual-use military design, adapted to produce weapon-grade plutonium, and its critical flaws were classified. The operators who pushed the emergency shutdown button in 1986 had no idea it could trigger an explosion with the force of 60 tons of TNT. They were victims of a Soviet system that prized secrecy over science.

That system’s instinct was to conceal, not contain. Pediatritian Alla Shapiro recounted being sent into the fallout zone without protective gear. The state delayed the evacuation of 115,000 people from Pripyat, waiting for orders from Moscow, and only admitted the disaster after Swedish sensors detected the radioactive cloud. Plohi argues this political culture of avoiding responsibility remains intact in modern Russia.

Chernobyl’s legacy stalled nuclear power for decades. The disaster became a symbol of its dangers, contributing to widespread public opposition. Citing the fallout, commentator Jim Smith notes only three reactors have been built in the U.S. in the last 30 years, and Germany abandoned its nuclear program entirely after the Fukushima incident.

The threat today is more acute. Modern drone warfare means a non-nuclear state can now trigger a meltdown by striking a rival's cooling systems or spent fuel storage. Plohi contends we have no business building new reactors until a new international convention is established to protect existing ones during armed conflict.

Luck has been the primary defense so far. A Russian drone pierced the Chernobyl sarcophagus in 2025 without causing a significant radioactive release. But as Plohi makes clear, relying on luck is not a strategy. The taboo is broken, and the world is unprepared for the consequences.

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Source Intelligence

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The Intelligence from The Economist
The Intelligence from The Economist

An explosion still echoing: Chernobyl at 40 • Apr 24

  • Chernobyl fostered international learning, with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) facilitating information exchange and leading to the modernization of Soviet-made reactors to Western standards. The realization that "Chernobyl anywhere is Chernobyl everywhere" underscored nuclear safety as an international concern.
  • In 2022, Chernobyl became the first nuclear plant occupied by an invading army, followed by Zaporizhzhia in March 2022, the largest nuclear power plant in Europe. Serhii Plohi argues that Russia demonstrated a complete disregard for nuclear safety, showing "zero learning" from the 1986 disaster.
  • There was no pre-existing protocol for the military occupation of a nuclear plant, as such an event was previously considered unthinkable. Serhii Plohi advocates for a new international convention to protect nuclear sites during wartime, as the IAEA currently lacks a mandate for such situations.
  • Chernobyl became a potent symbol of nuclear dangers, contributing to public reluctance towards nuclear power and affecting its proliferation. Jim Smith notes only three reactors have been built in the U.S. in the last 30 years, and Germany decided to go nuclear-free after Fukushima.
Also from this episode: (7)

History (3)

  • The Chernobyl nuclear power plant explosion in April 1986 was the worst nuclear disaster in history, detonating with the force of 60 tons of TNT. The incident stemmed from a safety test where engineers overrode protocols and a less experienced night shift unexpectedly managed the test.
  • The Soviet Union inaugurated the world's first atomic power plant in 1954, sparking a nuclear power race during the Cold War. By the 1970s, the RBMK reactor design was the largest globally, praised for quick, cheap construction but known to have faults.
  • Serhii Plohi explains that the Chernobyl reactor design, stolen from the U.S. in the late 1940s, was dual-purpose, capable of producing weapon-grade materials. This military secrecy meant even operators were unaware of critical design flaws, contributing to the disaster.

Politics (1)

  • Immediately after the explosion, 115,000 people were evacuated from Pripyat and surrounding areas, with another 220,000 displaced later. The Soviet government attempted to conceal the truth, falsely attributing deaths to decrease official victim numbers.

Health (1)

  • Approximately 15,000 people are estimated to have died from radiation exposure following the accident, with about 30 workers succumbing to acute radiation sickness shortly after. Hundreds of thousands of 'liquidators' were deployed for cleanup, often with inadequate protection.

Biology (2)

  • The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone has transformed into a thriving nature reserve, with a dramatic improvement in its ecosystem since 1994, according to Jim Smith. Przewalski's horses, an endangered species, were introduced starting in 1998 and have since flourished there.
  • Radiobiologist Olena Podolyuk studies bacteria within the Chernobyl sarcophagus that thrive in highly radioactive environments. These bacteria may have evolved to use radiation as an energy source, offering insights for genetic engineering to enable survival in high-radiation conditions like space.
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