The report presented this Tuesday by the IAEA ensures that “the current situation is unsustainable”
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has called for the creation of a security zone around the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, subject to crossfire between Russian and Ukrainian troops for weeks. The long-awaited report from his inspectors, presented this Tuesday before the Security Council of The United Nations maintains thatthe current situation is unsustainable” and calls for urgent measures “to prevent a nuclear accident“. The report, however, refrains from blaming either side for attacks launched in its vicinity, attacks for which Ukraine and Russia they accuse each other.
“It is the first time that a military conflict has taken place in the middle of the facilities of a major nuclear program. nuclear accident could have serious consequences within the country and outside its borders,” says the document presented by the agency dependent on the UN. Zaporizhia is the Europe’s largest nuclear power plant. At the beginning of March, just a few days after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it was occupied by Kremlin troops who, however, have allowed the plant’s Ukrainian technicians to continue managing it. That physical occupation of the plant was corroborated by UN inspectors during their visit to the plant last week. Inside its facilities they ran into Russian soldiers and armored vehicles, according to the report.
Since Russia occupied Zaporizhia and the regions south of the center, shocks have been the norm. This same Monday, a mortar attack attributed by kyiv to Russian forces unleashed a fire at the plant and forced the shutdown of a nearby thermal station to extinguish the fire. The impact of the artillery did not damage the transmission lines, which allowed the the only one of the six reactors still in operation in Zaporizhia continue to receive the electricity it needs to operate safely, according to the IAEA.
Constant threat to security
“Although the ongoing attacks have not yet caused a nuclear emergency, they constitute a constant threat to atomic security that could affect the essential safety functions of the plant and trigger far-reaching radiological consequences,” says the inspectors’ report. To remedy such a danger, the document proposes the creation of a security zone that allows fighting to be moved away from the vicinity of the plant. At the moment the response of the parties involved is not known, which six months after the start of the war continue to fight without a ceasefire in sight. Just a few days ago, kyiv announced the start of its counteroffensive in the south, with which it intends to recover the areas occupied by Russia since the beginning of the invasion.
Fear of a nuclear accident has revived the anxiety of the Ukrainian towns near the plantsmall towns and cities like energize, which was left without water or electricity on Monday as a result of the explosion at the plant. Its mayor, Dymitro Orlov, made a desperate appeal to the Kremlin to allow the population to be evacuated through humanitarian corridors. “People are flocking to us for help. They are trying to get out of this dangerous territory.” Both kyiv and its Western allies believe that, by occupying the plant, Russia intends to eventually disconnect it from the Ukrainian electrical system to keep the electricity it produces, a plunder similar to that carried out by its troops with Ukrainian grain production.
After several weeks of intense negotiations, UN inspectors managed to visit the Zaporizhia plant last Friday to gather information about its condition and the security risks it faces. It was a open grave mission, plagued by imponderables and punctuated by the frequent explosions in the area. The delegation left two of its inspectors at the plant, with the intention that they settle permanently at the plant, one of the objectives set by Rafael Grossi, director of the IAEA, who led the mission. Both Moscow and kyiv have been in favor of the permanent presence of inspectors in Zaporizhiaa presence that, at the very least, could serve as a deterrent to reduce armed activity in its vicinity.