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A man in a yellow hazmat suit simulates checking radiation levels on a Ukrainian boy by holding a black device out in front of him. Red-and-white striped tape keeps them separated from an onlooking crowd in the background.

A Ukrainian emergency service team simulates checking radiation levels on a boy during training drills held in the Zaporizhzhia region. / Elena Tita / Getty Images

Enacting a ‘Miracle’ at a Ukrainian Nuclear Power Plant

"It’s one of the most amazing stories in nonviolence history.”
September/October 2023
By John Reuwer

I WAS CONCERNED about the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant because of my background in things nuclear. Europe’s largest nuclear plant was sitting in frontline combat. It has hundreds of times more nuclear material than Chernobyl. When I read about the International Atomic Energy Agency sending in unarmed inspectors, I thought, here are 14 guys risking their necks to save what could be tens of thousands of people if this plant goes up. Those guys probably have never heard of nonviolent action or unarmed protection — everything you do to keep yourself and others safe once you take violence off the table. The least we, who practice this stuff, could do is support them.

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The cover for Sojourners' September/October 2023 issue, featuring a blue illustration of a woman praying. You can see tendrils of her nervous system glowing through her skin. She's surrounded by black bramble, stained glass windows, and a church building.
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John Reuwer

John Reuwer, a nuclear disarmament leader and veteran of unarmed civilian peace teams, lives in Maryland.

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