Understanding the legality of nuclear facility shelling in contemporary legal scholarship

Abstract

The potential for shelling and attacking nuclear power plants for the first time became an extremely dangerous reality in 2022. What is the purpose of this article, is legal-theoretical analysis of nuclear power plants shelling that would be state-sanctioned and unequivocally threaten world peace and global security, as well as the state and society; it is an analysis based on an interpretation of the sources of positive law. The threats of nuclear catastrophe, which may result from warfare and terrorist acts, loom over the state, society and the planet's radiation balance, creating the potential for environmental damage. At a time of escalating global confrontation with Russia, deepening the legal content of counter-nuclear terrorism to theorise and develop state-legal restrictive measures to legally limit military activities at nuclear power plants or in their immediate vicinity is relevant because of the danger of releasing destructive nuclear forces, radioactive contamination of people and territorial pollution. Developing legal norms that would limit military and subversive-terrorist activities of certain states in relation to nuclear facilities at the international and national levels would minimise threats to nuclear and radiation safety.