While attention has focused on the safety of the design of PWR reactors at #Zaporizhzhia NPP after last night's attack by #Russia and the fire, we also need to take the volume of radioactive waste stored at the site into account. 🧵⬇️ 1/x #Ukraine 
As @friends_earth noted in 2015 “With a war around the corner, it is shocking that the spent fuel rod containers are standing under the open sky, with just a metal gate and some security guards waltzing up and down for protection.” ourworld.unu.edu/en/nuclear-was… 2/x
As of 2015, "more than 3,000 spent #nuclear fuel rods are kept inside metal casks within towering concrete containers in an open-air yard close to a perimeter fence at #Zaporizhia." 3/x
The latest imagery from @planet demonstrates that, despite earlier pressure to address the risks the open air #Zaporizhzhia storage site poses, nothing was done - the cost would have been significant. #Ukraine 4/x
Despite the conflict in the #Donbas and tensions between both countries, #Ukraine has maintained relations with #Russia over the provision of nuclear fuel and disposal of waste. 5/x
#Russia is well aware of the risks that #Ukraine's #nuclear sites pose, and also that lines of technical communication were in place prior to the invasion. Therefore there is no way that Russia can argue that it was unaware of the risks Ukraine's NPP and storage sites pose 6/x
7/x A good overview of what happened at the site when the Russians entered it last night, based on the CCTV footage overtdefense.com/2022/03/03/zap… #Zaporizhzhia
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