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Abstract

In a troubling precedent for modern warfare, Russian forces seized Europe’s largest nuclear facility, converting the delicate infrastructure of the Zaporizhzhia plant into a fortified military garrison rigged with explosives. Inside, Ukrainian engineers were reportedly held hostage, forced to operate the controls at gunpoint while enduring torture and the psychological terror of impending meltdown.1 This is known as the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (“ZNPP”) Crisis.2

Within the reactor itself, the processes of producing nuclear energy cannot be abandoned, and constant custodianship is paramount.3 The intricacies and vulnerabilities of the fission process must be safeguarded, even during a total reactor shutdown.4 Atomic fission is a nuclear reaction wherein a neutron splits an atom’s nucleus.5 This reaction releases energy far greater than the energy of the initiating neutron.6 If this process occurs uncontrollably, tremendous energy is released within fractions of a second.7 Nuclear power plants (“NPPs”) employ nuclear fission to convert nuclear energy into mechanical energy.8 That mechanical energy is subsequently converted into electrical power, supplying cities, countries, and continents with the electricity needed to meet the demands of today’s fast-growing world.9 However, NPPs are also uniquely vulnerable to attacks, as they are essentially locations with highly concentrated nuclear material within each reactor’s core, which, depending on the reactor’s design, can also be breeding nuclear fuel.10 Nuclear fuel is a material composed of multiple elements that, under certain circumstances, can release energy uncontrollably through fission.11 If hostile parties were to tamper with the controlled environment of the reactor, they could destabilize this highly sensitive system of radioactive materials, causing irreparable harm to the environment and posing a long-lasting threat to civilization.12

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