kravietz 🦇<p>Yesterday I missed an important context of the attack[^1] of <a class="hashtag" href="https://agora.echelon.pl/tag/russia" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Russia</a> drone on <a class="hashtag" href="https://agora.echelon.pl/tag/chernobyl" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Chernobyl</a> - that <strong>only a day before,</strong> on 13 February president Zelensky visited Khmelnitsky <a class="hashtag" href="https://agora.echelon.pl/tag/nuclear" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#nuclear</a> power plant where he officially opened construction of <em>four</em> new power blocks.[^2] There’s going to be 2x1.1 GW unused Soviet reactors <a class="hashtag" href="https://agora.echelon.pl/tag/ukraine" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Ukraine</a> bought from <a class="hashtag" href="https://agora.echelon.pl/tag/bulgaria" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Bulgaria</a> and then 2x1.1 GW US Westinghouse reactors. So in total 4.4 GW, a massive capacity that will make Ukraine independent of the Russia-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and conventional power plants Russia has damaged or destroyed.</p><p>Russia’s drone was thus very likely an intimidating message, very much in Russian style, a reminder that they will try to sabotage the construction of the new blocks. Russians clearly chose a target that was “nuclear” enough but unlikely to cause any real trouble, it was purely psychological operation.</p><p>And it was not the first such <a class="hashtag" href="https://agora.echelon.pl/tag/nuclear" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#nuclear</a> <a class="hashtag" href="https://agora.echelon.pl/tag/terrorism" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#terrorism</a> operation in Russian history - in the same way in 1982 they tried to stop construction of a powerful fast-breeder Superphénix reactor in <a class="hashtag" href="https://agora.echelon.pl/tag/france" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#France</a> - unique one, because it allowed to fully close the nuclear fuel cycle and essentially reuse uranium fuel practically forever. Soviets used Chaïm Nissim, an activist for Swiss Green Party, who fired at the reactor in construction from a RPG-7 grenade launcher delivered to him by nobody else than the famous terrorist Carlos the Jackal in cooperation with Cellules Communistes Combattantes (Communist Combatant Cells). Nissim of course admitted to it only in 2003 and the attack was the for decades used as practical proof of “vulnerability of nuclear power to terrorism” by Greens. The argument was absurd because the attack, if it demonstrated anything, it was literal invulnerability because the grenade didn’t even scratch the concrete casing of the reactor, but Superphénix was plagued with “environmental” protests until it was closed in 1997.</p><p>[^1]: <a href="https://agora.echelon.pl/notice/Ar6ZX436j1CLflupn6" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://agora.echelon.pl/notice/Ar6ZX436j1CLflupn6</a></p><p>[^2]: <a href="https://gordonua.com/news/politics/zelenskij-posetil-khmelnitskuju-aes-i-zajavil-chto-eto-budet-samaja-silnaja-stantsija-v-ukraine-1733301.html?ysclid=m74y041mdl624510089" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://gordonua.com/news/politics/zelenskij-posetil-khmelnitskuju-aes-i-zajavil-chto-eto-budet-samaja-silnaja-stantsija-v-ukraine-1733301.html?ysclid=m74y041mdl624510089</a></p><p>[^3]: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superph%C3%A9nix#Rocket_attack" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superph%C3%A9nix#Rocket_attack</a></p>