Weaponized or compromised Ukrainian nuclear power plants as bioterrorism: AI driven Computational Ethics, health equity, and cost effectiveness analysis of prevention and response

Abstract

The February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine has resulted in the first 10 days of war in what the United Nations described as the fastest growing humanitarian crisis since World War II and the first military attack on an active nuclear power plant. This analysis presents the first known AI driven Computational Ethics (AICE), health equity, and cost effectiveness analysis (CEA) of prevention of and response to nuclear terrorism as bioterrorism (amid mounting global concern for the use of deliberate tactical nuclear weapons). It addresses the risk of false flag operations to sabotage and thus weaponize a Ukrainian power plant, and the related scenario of continued assault and occupation resulting in accidental plant compromise, with the similar outcome in both scenarios of nuclear meltdown as a potentially Europe-wide health, humanitarian, and ecological crisis. Using widely accepted and available data, methodologies, and assumptions, this computational analysis demonstrates that prevention of such bioterrorism on average would produce net savings of $306.2 trillion overall, in addition to $493.7 trillion saves in otherwise explosive related health inequities. Given these data inputs, computational ethical analysis suggests the substantive multicultural convergence from the world’s diverse belief systems (including Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, and secularism) that dignity, rights, and justice require prevention of such bioterrorism and prompt conclusion of this conflict as the most effective and urgent health system and public health responses to this crisis.