IMPROVEMENT OF THE LEGISLATION OF UKRAINE REGARDING THE PROTECTION OF NPP AS CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE OBJECTS IN WARTIME

Abstract

Peculiarities of the legal regime of protection of nuclear power plants as objects of critical infrastructure in emergency situations, state of emergency and while martial law are studied. The actual transformation of nuclear power plants captured by the Russian Federation into a military base contradicts the ideological issue and worldview of security and thus can be defined as nuclear terrorism. Any nuclear installations are not designed for operation in combat conditions, and their damage can lead to serious consequences connected with radiation contamination of the surrounding territories not only at the level of countries, but also at the level of continents. It is stipulated that until now the concept of nuclear terrorism was defined as the illegal handling, manufacture, acquisition, storage and use of nuclear or other radioactive materials by persons who do not have legal rights to the specified actions, with the intention of causing harm to human life and health, property or environment. However, for the first time in world practice, the subject of the crime of seizing, disabling and destroying nuclear facilities is the state. And as it turns out, the international community still lacks effective mechanisms to prevent such actions and punish such entities. Until recently, the IAEA and other international organizations were actually limited to "deep concern" and only the real threat of a nuclear disaster at the Zaporizhzhia NPP forced them to become somewhat more active, but drastic changes in their activities regarding the safety of the use of peaceful atoms are needed to protect the world from the global nuclear threat. This provoked incredible challenges and led to the need, in addition to the political solution of the mentioned issue, to review the existing Ukrainian and international legislation on ensuring nuclear and radiation safety. Based on the results of the research, the author's specification of the legislative definition of the concepts: "nuclear terrorism," "threat of nuclear terrorism," and "prevention of nuclear terrorism" were formulated. The necessity of introducing demilitarized zones around nuclear-dangerous objects and the development (on Ukraine's initiative) of the international Convention on ensuring the safety of their functioning in conditions of armed conflicts is substantiated in the paper. The research used the following methods: the general dialectical method, the method of scientific knowledge, the method of interpreting legal norms, the formal legal method, the comparative legal method, and the method of systemic analysis.