For more than a year, Russian troops have occupied the nuclear power plant in Enerhodar. Since then, people in nearby Zaporizhia have lived in fear of a possible explosion. The authorities have drawn up detailed plans for a possible Gau.
The dosimeter that Mikhail Kostenetsky pulls out of his pocket on a bush in the courtyard of the Zaporizhia health department looks like the remote control for an air conditioner. The radiologist points to the display, which immediately shows the result of the measurement: 0.07 microsievert per hour. “That’s the normal value, about the same as in Germany,” says the doctor, who is considered a luminary in his field in Ukraine. “Everywhere in the region we measure the radioactivity around the clock, every one to two hours: If the Russians do something to the power plant in Enerhodar, we will know immediately.”