UKRAINIAN NUCLEAR PROFESSIONALS ASK THE INTERNATIONAL NUCLEAR COMMUNITY: “WHAT’S NEXT?”

Is the international nuclear safety system prepared for a reality in which a civilian nuclear power plant can remain under occupation for years; hostilities and occupation affect territories where civilian nuclear facilities and radioactive material and waste management facilities are located; energy infrastructure is systematically targeted; and personnel must maintain safety under wartime conditions?

Over the past few years, Ukraine has gained experience that no country with a developed nuclear energy sector had faced before the full-scale war. This experience already offers concrete lessons. At the same time, it raises a far more difficult question: what should the international nuclear community do next? It was around this question that Energy Safety Institute and Women in Nuclear Ukraine (WiN Ukraine) joined forces to create the Almanac “Nuclear Safety and Security. What’s next?” — the first publication of its kind from Ukraine to systematise the professional experience of the nuclear industry operating under full-scale war and bring it to the international level as a basis for further discussion.

The initiative emerged in a symbolic year for the global nuclear industry: 2026 marks 40 years since the Chornobyl accident and 15 years since the Fukushima Daiichi accident. Following each of these events, the global nuclear industry analysed the lessons learned, reviewed safety requirements, strengthened emergency preparedness, and further developed safety culture and international coordination. Today, the industry is confronted with an experience of a fundamentally different nature.

The occupation of civilian nuclear facilities in 2022; the prolonged occupation of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, Zaporizhzhia NPP; the military presence at its site and repeated losses of off-site power; pressure on personnel; systematic attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure; and the Russian drone strike on the New Safe Confinement at Chornobyl NPP in February 2025 have created a complex set of challenges for which the global nuclear safety and security system was designed under entirely different circumstances.

During this period, Ukrainian professionals have accumulated practical experience in maintaining nuclear and radiation safety, nuclear security, workforce and organisational resilience, energy market operations, countering information threats, preserving critical competencies, and restructuring international supply chains. Yet the longer the industry operates under these conditions, the more pressing another question becomes: where is the line between adaptation and normalisation? When temporary emergency measures, enhanced operating arrangements, constant readiness for further attacks, the occupation of civilian nuclear facilities, and years of work under wartime pressure begin to be seen as routine, the abnormality of the situation itself risks losing its urgency. 

For the Energy Safety Institute and WiN Ukraine, this became one of the key reasons for creating the Almanac. Its purpose is to document the experience Ukraine has accumulated while preventing that experience from being perceived as a new standard to which the global nuclear industry should simply adapt. The question is what international, legal, technical, and institutional solutions need to be developed to prevent such conditions from becoming an accepted reality for civilian nuclear energy.

The initiative was joined by the State Exclusion Zone Management Agency of Ukraine (SEZMA), Energy Safety Group, Chornobyl NPP, and the State Enterprise “USIE IZOTOP”. The Almanac’s contributions were prepared by Ukrainian professionals representing different segments of the nuclear and energy sectors and directly engaged with the challenges created by the war.

The Almanac covers five interconnected areas — Nuclear Safety, Nuclear Security, Human Dimension, Information & Communication, and System Resilience. It addresses the safety of civilian nuclear facilities during war, technological diversification and a new engineering ecosystem for VVER reactors, international nuclear security mechanisms, human factors and the preservation of critical competencies, gender equality, the information environment, radiation safety, and energy sector resilience.

The first international platform for presenting the Almanac was the 70th IAEA General Conference in Vienna. The publication was presented during side events addressing Ukraine’s experience, resilience, nuclear safety and security, and the lessons that already have implications for the future of the international nuclear industry.

In presenting the Almanac to the international community, Energy Safety Institute and WiN Ukraine propose looking at Ukraine’s experience from two perspectives. The first is what practical lessons can strengthen the resilience and preparedness of the civilian nuclear industry for emerging threats. The second is how to prevent the need to prepare for such threats from gradually becoming an accepted scenario for civilian nuclear energy. 

This distinction is fundamental. The industry needs to know how to respond to the occupation of a civilian nuclear power plant, loss of off-site power, attacks on critical infrastructure, or prolonged pressure on personnel. At the same time, preparedness for such scenarios cannot normalise them. Alongside technical and organisational solutions, there must be a discussion about international legal and institutional mechanisms capable of preventing such situations, ensuring an effective response, and establishing accountability for actions that create threats to civilian nuclear facilities.

The question “What’s next?” in the title of the Almanac is therefore addressed quite literally to the international nuclear community. Are existing international norms sufficient to protect civilian nuclear facilities during armed conflicts? What mechanisms should be in place to respond to the occupation of a civilian nuclear power plant? How can the safety of personnel working under the prolonged impact of war be ensured? Where is the line between strengthening preparedness for new risks and effectively accepting those risks as part of a new reality?

The Almanac does not offer a single universal answer. It documents facts and the professional experience of those working with these challenges in practice and opens a discussion about what the next solutions should be.

Ukraine’s experience should help the global nuclear industry become better prepared for crises. But it should not become a manual for learning to live with war around civilian nuclear facilities.

Nuclear Safety and Security. What’s next?

The full version of the Almanac is available to download on the website’s homepage.