The head of the United Nations atomic watchdog expressed surprise on Thursday at the international complacency over safety at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in southern Ukraine, where a few hours ago After that, Russian shelling once again cut off power to the plant and forced workers to use backup generators to maintain it. safety.
This is the sixth time that the Zaporizhzhia facility, Europe’s largest nuclear plant, has needed to switch to an emergency power supply since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine a year ago, according to Rafael Mariano Grossi. Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency. United Nations monitoring agency. He described the use of generators there as “the last line of defense” against a possible nuclear accident.
In a scathing statement to the agency’s board on Thursday, Mr. Grossi called for immediate action to restore security at the plant, which was occupied by Russian forces shortly after the invasion of the country. this one year ago.
“What are we doing?” he say, by agency. “How can we sit here in this room this morning and allow this to happen? This cannot continue.” He added, “I’m surprised by the complacency.”
“We are rolling a dice each time, and if we let this go on over and over, one day our luck will run out,” Mr. Grossi said.
According to the agency’s website, the council that decides policy for the organization consists of 35 member states including Russia.
According to Ukraine’s national nuclear company, Energoatom, Russian shelling early Thursday cut off external power lines supplying power to the plant’s six reactors. The company says the plant has a supply of diesel oil to power generators for 10 days, although the IAEA, which sent inspectors to the plant, says it has enough fuel for 15 days. .
Bringing more diesel supplies across the front lines in the southern Zaporizhzhia region is extremely difficult, and Energoatom has warned of the risk of not having enough power for the facility, where radioactive leak containment equipment requires power. fuel continuously, even with all reactors offline.
“If it is not possible to regenerate the external power of the station during this time, an accident with radiation consequences for the whole world is possible,” the company said on Telegram.
Mr. Grossi said the plant’s external power was last cut off in November. Each time the power supply to the plant was cut off, engineers raced to fix it before 18 of the home’s diesel generators. engine runs out of fuel. International nuclear inspectors have repeatedly called the situation unsustainable and precarious.
The United Nations atomic agency has spent months trying to forge an agreement between Moscow and Kiev to establish a safe and secure zone around the plant. But Ukraine’s energy minister this week said negotiations had reached a dead end because Russia had refused his government’s request to pull out of the plant and hand control of it back to Energoatom. Moscow has placed the plant under the control of state nuclear company Rosatom.
Thursday’s dawn shelling took place as Russia launched missile and drone attack across Ukraine as part of a months-long campaign to destroy the country’s electricity infrastructure.
Since the Moscow military began occupying the Zaporizhzhia facility, it has been hit by a missile, which at one point damaged an area containing spent nuclear fuel. There have also been multiple reports of shells falling on and near the factory grounds. Russian forces have also set up machine gun posts at the plant, Energoatom said this week.
Ukrainian authorities say that several Ukrainian workers who stayed there were questioned and at least one was killed by Russian forces.
