The Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant, the largest nuclear power plant in Europe with six reactors, was damaged on Friday and Saturday. According to the Ukrainian operator of the plant, three radiation sensors, a high-voltage cable and a spot near the nuclear waste repository were hit. An employee is also said to have been seriously injured by flying shrapnel.
“Any attack on a nuclear power plant is a suicide attack,” Guterres said Monday at a commemoration of the atomic bombing of the Japanese city of Hiroshima. He wants experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to be admitted to the Ukrainian plant to ensure nuclear safety and gain a better understanding of the situation – Ukraine and Russia are contradicting each other over the shelling on the ground.
Completely out of control
The IAEA has sounded the alarm. According to director-general Rafael Grossi there is a “very real risk of a nuclear disaster”. He has been pushing for a monitoring mission from his UN agency for four months. Now the situation at the power station is “completely out of hand,” he says. Grossi: ‘There is no more time to lose.’
Ukraine and Russia must authorize UN observation. Both countries said on Monday that they wanted to participate in an international monitoring mission at the plant, but there is still no green light. Ukraine wants a mission to demilitarize the plant to be launched by the end of August at the latest.
According to Ukraine and the United States, Russia has converted the plant into a military base with some 500 soldiers and 50 heavy vehicles, including tanks and artillery systems. The Russian army is said to have laid mines on the banks of the Dnipro River, which supplies water for cooling the reactors. Russia is also said to have fired rockets from the site in recent days, badly hitting the city of Nikopol on the other side of the river.
Nuclear terror
Video images from March show that Russia has already carried out shelling in the area. In such attacks, Ukraine is almost impossible to fire back, because it runs the risk of causing a nuclear disaster. Russia is using the plant as a “nuclear shield,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last week. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks of “nuclear terror” and calls for sanctions against Russia’s nuclear industry.
Moscow confirms damage was done to the plant, but blames Ukrainian missile strikes. The Russian Defense Ministry stated on Monday that a high-voltage cable was hit and that smoke was visible at a switching station on the site. The fire brigade would have come into action several times. A Russian colonel said there was a disaster looming larger than the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in the days of the Soviet Union.
No damage to reactors
The only thing Ukraine and Russia agree on is that the reactors have not suffered any damage so far. However, one reactor was temporarily disconnected from the grid.
It is not the first time since Russia’s invasion that tensions have risen over security at Ukraine’s nuclear power plants. In February, the Russian army captured the radioactively contaminated site around the exploded Chernobyl nuclear power plant and kidnapped all technicians and security guards present. The Zaporizhzhya plant — which accounts for 20 percent of Ukraine’s energy supply — was attacked by Russia in early March. The plant has since been in Russian hands, but is still managed by Ukrainian technicians.
It is unclear whether they can carry out their work unimpeded. Ukraine says they have to do their job ‘with a Russian gun barrel to their temple’. The IAEA has warned Russia not to pressure or threaten Ukrainians.