Is Zaporizhzhia the first active nuclear power plant to be seized by a hostile military force? [View all]

[Shermann]

I believe so. These are dangerous times.

I wonder how Russia will keep it operational. You can force captives do manual labor indefinitely, but nuclear engineers running a complex facility? Not so much. They're going to need some freedom and autonomy.

It will be interesting to see how Russia manages this. They could bring in their own people. It was built by the USSR, and they will have knowledge of the reactor design. But time marches on and by now there are surely a lot of custom systems in place requiring tribal knowledge to operate. I'm guessing they will have to make it worth their while. There are seriously bad optics if that plant shuts down.