Policy Recommendations

Protection of Nuclear Facilities and Japan’s Role — In Response to Russian Invasion of Ukraine and Attacks on Nuclear Power Plants —

May 10, 2023

The Study Group on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Nuclear Security (chaired by Professor Tatsujiro Suzuki, Nagasaki University), established by the Security Studies Program of the Sasakawa Peace Foundation, has published a set of policy recommendations entitled "Protection of Nuclear Facilities and Japan’s Role— In Response to Russian Invasion of Ukraine and Attacks on Nuclear Power Plants.”

Russia launched a military invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, with two of the country’s nuclear power plants—Chernobyl and Zaporizhzhia—seized by Russian troops. These Russian attacks on nuclear power plants shocked the world, not only because they constituted a gross violation of the Geneva Conventions, but also because there was a real danger that the slightest misstep could lead to a devastating disaster involving a massive release of radioactive substances.

Under these circumstances, the study group published a set of policy recommendations regarding the roles of international agencies and individual countries in ensuring the protection of nuclear facilities. The document also outlines issues that Japan should address as the host country of the upcoming G7 Summit.

Click here to download the recommendations.

Description

Date of Publication

February 2023

Content

Recommendations
1. Protection of nuclear facilities in wartime
Nuclear facility protection in wartime is inadequate as it stands today. The UN Security Council has been unable to fulfill its functions, resulting in its inability to properly intervene in the protection of nuclear facilities. Thus, it is necessary to develop a new mechanism for enabling the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to assist with the protection of nuclear facilities in consultation with the warring parties and neighboring countries. We call on the government to consider mechanisms, for instance, for establishing “nuclear safety and security protection zones” as proposed by the IAEA; cooperating with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), an agency with a proven record for its activities in war zones; and dispatching a “nuclear emergency safety mission (NESM)” by resolution of the UN General Assembly in readiness for cases where the UN Security Council fails to function properly. The international community should immediately start discussing ways to develop such mechanisms, and Japan should take a lead in the discussions.

2. Future steps, including changes to international law, for enhancing nuclear facility protection
There is an urgent need for the international community to start discussing steps—and challenges faced—toward achieving a complete ban on military attacks on nuclear facilities by amending or adding new provisions to the Geneva Conventions, which prohibit military attacks on nuclear power plants only in principle, as well as to nuclear-related international conventions, with an eye to cases in which a country with nuclear facilities or a neighboring country engages in war. As a forerunner in the civilian use of nuclear energy, Japan should propose concrete measures and take a lead in international discussions to reform international law and establish a new set of international principles.

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