UN Watchdog Warns Of a Dangerous Accident At Ukraine Nuclear Plant

The head of the UN nuclear watchdog agency warned Monday that the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine is dangerously close to an accident as a result of recent attacks on it.

Rafael Grossi, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief stated, “Russia and Ukraine have blamed one other for the strikes during the last week, but it is impossible to prove who is behind them”.

Zaporizhzhia, Europe’s largest nuclear power facility, has been seized by the Russian military since shortly after their invasion began in February 2022.

It has been shut down since that year due to repeated shelling attacks.

Since April 7, the plant has been subjected to a series of drone attacks, which are the first direct assaults since November 2022.

At the UN Security Council meeting, Grossi said, “These reckless attacks must cease immediately”.

“Though, fortunately, they have not led to a radiological incident this time, they significantly increase the risk at Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, where nuclear safety is already compromised”, Grossi continued, whose agency has staff stationed at the facility.

Grossi claimed that the attack ‘sets a very dangerous precedent’ because the reactor confinement structure was targeted.

Asked later by media about the perpetrators of the attacks, Grossi responded, “It is simply impossible to determine”.

“The strikes were carried out using drones, which have a diverse trajectory. It hovers, it circles. And drones can be obtained almost anywhere”, Grossi continued.

Grossi previously stated that two years of war are weighing heavily on nuclear safety at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and that every one of the IAEA’s seven pillars of nuclear safety and security have been compromised.

Grossi went on to say, “We cannot sit by and watch as the final weight tips the finely balanced scale”.

“We are getting dangerously close to a nuclear accident. We must not allow complacency to let roles of the dice decide what happens tomorrow”, Grossi added.

“The risk of a major accident is real even though the reactors are turned off”, the UN nuclear watchdog chief warned.

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