Ukraine, Turkey, and UN talk nuclear plant, grain exports

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with the Turkish president and the UN secretary-general Thursday for talks about exporting grain and stopping fighting at a nuclear plant in the embattled country. Zelenskyy proposed expanding the limited number of grain shipments being allowed during the war. Russia in March took control of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe. Both countries have accused the other of shelling the plant and creating the potential for a nuclear disaster. 

What has Russia said about the plant? The Russian defense ministry said it could shut down the plant if it came under further attack. But Ukrainian officials said that could be a ploy to sever it from Ukraine’s power grid and divert it to Russia. Ukrainian state nuclear energy company Energoatom told Reuters that shutting down the plant would be difficult because it means halting chain reactions. It also said that if Russia tries to disconnect its generators from Ukraine’s power system, that could lead to an inability to cool the reactor fuel in a power outage—which would cause a nuclear meltdown. 

Dig deeper: Read my report in Beginnings on what’s happening at the last nuclear plant to have a meltdown.