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The U.N. nuclear chief warned that Europe’s largest nuclear power plant in Ukraine “is completely out of control” and issued an urgent plea to Russia and Ukraine to quickly allow experts to visit the sprawling complex to stabilize the situation and avoid a nuclear accident.
Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said in an interview Tuesday with The Associated Press that the situation is getting more perilous every day at the Zaporizhia plant in the southeastern city of Enerhodar, which Russian troops seized in early March, soon after their Feb. 24. invasion of Ukraine.
“Every principle of nuclear safety has been violated” at the plant, he said. “What is at stake is extremely serious and extremely grave and dangerous.”
Grossi cited many violations of the plant’s safety, adding that it is “in a place where active war is ongoing,” near Russian-controlled territory.
The physical integrity of the plant hasn’t been respected, he said, citing shelling at the beginning of the war when it was taken over and continuing information from Ukraine and Russia accusing each other of attacks at Zaporizhia.
There is “a paradoxical situation” in which the plant is controlled by Russia, but its Ukrainian staff continues to run its nuclear operations, leading to inevitable moments of friction and alleged violence, he said. While the IAEA has some contacts with staff, they are “faulty” and “patchy,” he said.
Grossi said the supply chain of equipment and spare parts has been interrupted, “so we are not sure the plant is getting all it needs.” The IAEA also needs to perform very important inspections to ensure that nuclear material is being safeguarded, “and there is a lot of nuclear material there to be inspected,” he said.
“When you put this together, you have a catalog of things that should never be happening in any nuclear facility,” Grossi said. “And this is why I have been insisting from day one that we have to be able to go there to perform this safety and security evaluation, to do the repairs, and to assist as we already did in Chornobyl.”
On the night of 4 March, nuclear safety at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant was breached. Reactors were in danger due to shelling by the Russian military and the fire it caused.
Firefighters were at first not allowed to put out the fire caused by the shelling. They were later allowed to enter the site and at 06:20 the fire was extinguished.
President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed the world and said that no one had ever fired on nuclear power plants. He said that the Russians were effectively blackmailing Ukraine and the world with an explosion that would be a disaster on a global scale.
There are 6 power units in Enerhodar. In total, there are 15 nuclear units in Ukraine. Only one exploded at the Chornobyl nuclear power plant in 1986, with devastating consequences.
Read also: Finish the Russia-Ukraine war before winter: an interview with Ukraine’s General Malomuzh
