Ukraine’s frontline school system goes underground to protect against bombs and radiation

Russian forces Control of Chernobyl was seized In the first days of the invasion, however, it was repelled by Ukrainian forces.

Experts say the Zaporizhia plant has a safer, more modern design than Chornobyl and does not pose the same danger of a large-scale meltdown. But this does not reduce the risk to zero, and Russia will remain a threatening neighbor even after the war is over.

Sam Lair, a researcher at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies, said an investment that might seem excessive elsewhere is more understandable in Ukraine.

“They’re there, they’re under conventional air and missile attack from the Russians, and they have experience that these attacks don’t just target military targets,” Lair said. “If I were them, I’d build them too.”

Additionally, the Zaporozhye region received donations from the European Union. 5.5 million iodine pills, which helps inhibit the absorption of thyroid some radiation.

Since the beginning of the war, Russia has repeatedly talked about its nuclear weapons stockpile without eliminating direct threats. In September, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia would consider any attack by a country supported by a nuclear-armed country as a joint attack, and emphasized that Russia would consider any attack supported by a nuclear-armed country as a joint attack. We can respond with nuclear weapons Against any attack that poses a “critical threat to our sovereignty.”

Ukrainian officials fear that Russia’s attacks on the Chernobyl and Zaporozhye nuclear power plants may be just the beginning. In his speech at the end of September UN General Assembly, Zelenskyy warned that Russia was preparing to attack more nuclear power plants that produce most of Ukraine’s electricity.

“God forbid, if Russia causes a nuclear disaster at one of our nuclear power plants, radiation does not respect state borders,” Zelenskyy said.

The cost of building an underground school system is enormous; The budget of the underground version of Gymnasium No. 71 alone is more than 112 million hryvnia ($2.7 million). International donors fund most of this, and national and local governments have made it a priority on par with funding the military.

“Everyone understands that strengthening the army and aid is priority No. 1,” said Ivan Fedorov, head of the Zaporizhzhia region. “But who will we fight for if we lose our new generation of Ukrainians?”

Daria Oncheva, a 15-year-old student of Gymnasium 71, is looking forward to underground classes; And not just because he’ll end up in the same place as his schoolmates.

“It’s safer than sitting at home remotely,” he said.

Across town, School No. 88 is further away, its rooms hollowed out and encased in concrete thick enough to block the first radiation attack. The contractor carrying out the project is also digging trenches for the Ukrainian army. When finished, it will also be the primary bomb shelter for the neighborhood, where single-family homes have small orchards and trellised gardens but no basements.

An optimistic timeline would see the school be ready for children by December. It has a three-layer rebar structure consisting of a total of 400 tons of metal and 3,100 cubic meters of reinforced concrete. The top of the building will include about a meter (yard) of soil, which will be hidden by a football field and playground.

The school will have the ability to operate independently for three days, including an air filtration system, two separate power lines and extra food and water supplies.

Michael Dillon, a scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory who studies how people can survive nuclear fallout, said being underground increases survival by a factor of 10.

But Alicia Sanders-Zakre of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons said ultimately people can do more — “which is to eliminate these weapons rather than even build a Band-Aid for the real problem.”

Lyudmila Zlatova, who has been the principal of School No. 88 for 30 years, hopes that this building will be a structure designed for the dangers that Zaporizhia will face in the future. But he and the recently reunited parents were most interested in the present; They were talking at the edge of the construction pit as air raid sirens blared.

It takes 10 seconds for a bomb to reach a neighborhood from the front line, leaving little time for evacuation and landing with frustrating frequency. The sunless rooms and concrete corridors of the underground school would only make the children more comfortable, given the situation they were already enduring, he said.

“They will feel better studying without windows,” said Zlatova, looking at the construction site.