All’s Fair in Nuclear Power and War?: Ecological Narratives in International Media Coverage of Ukrainian Nuclear Power Plants during the Russian War

• In Event: Environmental Impacts of the 2022 Russian Invasion of Ukraine

Abstract

Since February 2022, when the Russian army invaded and occupied Chornobyl, and soon after Europe’s largest nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia, events have been widely followed in the international media, arousing widespread anxiety about a major nuclear disaster on an unprecedented scale. This paper aims to investigate, whether the prevailing narratives of this media coverage are primarily ecological or something else, such as geopolitical, helping to comprehend the growing atomic anxiety.

Author

• Mika Perkiömäki, U of Helsinki (Finland)