Skip to main content
Nuclear power plants: a risk in Ukraine?
Europe is worried about gas – but the real danger is nuclear, if a regional conflict were to lead to a Fukushima-style meltdown in any of the embattled nation’s 15 reactors, argues LINDA PENTZ GUNTER
Airmen and civilians from the 436th Aerial Port Squadron at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, load ammunition and weapons bound for Ukraine January 21, 2022.

THE US and its Nato allies are already in a panic over a potential energy crisis in Europe should Russia cut off gas supplies in an apparent effort to dampen European support for Ukraine in the ongoing dispute between the two former Soviet countries.

But the wringing of hands over gas supplies misses the greater danger: there are 15 nuclear reactors in Ukraine providing about 50 per cent of the country’s electricity.

Vulnerable to accident or sabotage, a major release of their radioactive inventories could render large areas of Europe uninhabitable.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
CRISIS LOOMING: Fishing boats dot the sea as cargo ships, in the background, sail through the Arabian Gulf toward the Strait of Hormuz off the United Arab Emirates, Friday March 27 2026
Features / 9 April 2026
9 April 2026

Fertiliser chaos triggered by Gulf conflict could send prices soaring and leave millions facing devastating hunger, writes DYLAN MURPHY

INTERMINABLE DELAYS: The lifting of a 245-tonne steel dome onto Hinkley Point C's second reactor building, at in Bridgwater, Somerset on July 17 2025 - scheduled to be finished by 2025 it now won’t be until 2031
Features / 6 December 2025
6 December 2025

The Communist Party of Britain’s Congress last month debated a resolution on ending opposition to all nuclear power in light of technological advances and the climate crisis. RICHARD HEBBERT explains why

Prime Minister Keir Starmer and US President Donald Trump during a press conference at Chequers, near Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, on day two of the president's second state visit to the UK, September 18, 2025
Features / 2 October 2025
2 October 2025

Once again, working people have been betrayed with false promises about jobs in an industry that is actually making climate change worse, writes LINDA PENTZ GUNTER

Protesters march past the Atomic Bomb Dome during a protest on the 80th anniversary of the WWII U.S. atomic bombing, in Hiroshima, Japan, August 6, 2025
Features / 7 August 2025
7 August 2025

For 80 years, survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings have pleaded “never again,” for anyone. But are we listening, asks Linda Pentz Gunter