World Watching Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant for Signs of Sabotage

I may have to learn how to spell “Zaporizhzhia” – this problem is not going away.
Following the destruction, by Russia, of a massive Ukrainian dam, threats to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear plant have taken on new credibility, particularly following warnings by Ukrainian intelligence of ominous movements by Russian military and nuclear personnel.
Russians appear to have a different idea of nuclear safety practices, which includes regular beatings of critical safety workers.

New York Times:

Never before has one of the world’s largest nuclear facilities fallen into the bull’s-eye of a large-scale war. Already, parts of two reactors have been hit by artillery and by a large-caliber bullet, though most engineers believe the plant is strong enough to withstand such attacks.

The Ukrainian engineers keeping the plant from melting down are reaching their own breaking point. They have been working for months at gunpoint, according to interviews with current and former employees. And Russian soldiers have dragged scientists and technicians off to a place called “the pit” where they were interrogated and beaten, a former director said.

Now the Ukrainian army is on the march, trying to prove to itself and the world that it can reclaim territory that the much bigger Russian Army has seized. As the long-awaited counteroffensive begins to show small gains, Ukrainian officials say Russian troops at the plant are increasingly desperate.

According to Ukrainian officials, the Russians recently mined the cooling pond that keeps the reactors from melting down and have begun to withdraw some of their own experts, an ominous sign, they say.

“The situation is very dangerous,” Mr. Zelensky said on Saturday. “We have received information from our intelligence that Russia is planning to cause a radiation release.”

Western experts have expressed less alarm. The conventional wisdom is that the Russians know a nuclear incident could carry terrifying, and unknown, consequences and therefore it’s unlikely — though not impossible — that the Russians would intentionally set one off.

The international inspectors who remain at the plant reported recently that they had not seen any mines but said they needed more access. Biden administration officials said that they did not believe a threat was imminent but that they were watching “very, very closely.”

Ukrainians are trying to take some comfort from that.

“I can’t argue with American reconnaissance,” said Yevhen Yevtushenko, Nikopol’s regional military administrator. “They must be right. I hope they are.”

Mr. Yevtushenko is an imposing figure with a long gray beard, crew cut and pistol strapped to his hip. When asked why he wasn’t ordering an evacuation of Nikopol if the nation’s leaders truly believe a nuclear diaster is in the offing, he said: “I wish people would leave but we can’t force them. Ukraine is a free country and nothing has happened — yet.”

As if Nikopol needed any more hardships, it ran out of water three weeks ago. When a major dam that was occupied by the Russians was suddenly destroyed, the reservoir that Nikopol and many other communities relied on ran dry. The city is now scrambling to provide residents with bottled water and water from other sources.

This leads to a point that Ukrainian officials have begun to make: If the Russians, as many Ukrainians believe, blew up the dam and caused widespread environmental mayhem, why should anyone doubt they would sabotage a nuclear plant?