2023 Undergraduate Fellow Spotlight: Benjamin Cordola
Benjamin Cordola is a Geography and Russian major at Middlebury College with an expected graduation in February 2025. He is a graduate of the Middlebury Summer Russian School, and has spent the last semester studying in Madrid and interning at an immigration law firm. He loves Geography for its diversity of skills and tools, and is especially interested in open-source methods being used to study Russia and eastern Europe. He also enjoys the design aspect of creating graphics, maps and visualizations. At CNS this summer, Benjamin hopes to bring these skills to research teams studying Russia and Eurasia, while learning more about non-proliferation and open-source research techniques. After this opportunity in Monterey, Benjamin looks to pursue opportunities to travel and research in Russia and Eurasia, before or after graduation. Outside of the classroom Benjamin is an avid climber and cyclist, with a knack for developing too many hobbies at once. He is currently focused on playing his accordion and trying to learn how to surf.
Research Presentation: VVER Reactors and the ZNPP
Between 2012 and 2021 Russia’s state nuclear energy company, ROSATOM, began construction of 19 VVER-type nuclear reactors; 15 of these initiated abroad. The largest nuclear power plant in Europe, Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP), is made up of 6 VVER reactors and has been under Russian control since a few weeks into the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. A discussion on the use of these reactors as exports of both influence and economic dependency abroad is an interesting one, and on a smaller scale, the case of the ZNPP is a fascinating crossroads between both environmental threats and the military use of peaceful nuclear infrastructure in wartime. I will focus on the ZNPP as a case study and highlight the utility of “new tools” for monitoring from afar.