Ukraine accused Russian forces on Sunday of launching rockets at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, further increasing fears of an accident a day after the United Nation’s watchdog warned that fighting at the occupied complex risked a “nuclear disaster.”
A view of Ukraine’s nuclear plant in Zaporizhzhia. Credit: Ralf1969, CC BY-SA 3.0
Ukraine accused Russian forces on Sunday of launching rockets at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, further increasing fears of an accident a day after the United Nation’s watchdog warned that fighting at the occupied complex risked a “nuclear disaster.” It was the second time in as many days that the plant, which is the largest of its kind in Europe, was hit. Ukraine and Russia have traded blame for both attacks.
The rockets launched on Saturday night struck near a dry storage facility, where 174 casks with spent nuclear fuel are kept, according to Energoatom, Ukraine’s state-run nuclear power company. Explosions blew out windows in parts of the plant and one worker was hospitalized with shrapnel wounds. “Apparently, they aimed specifically at the containers with processed fuel, which are stored outside next to the site of shelling,” the company said in a statement on Telegram. Three radiation monitoring detectors were also damaged on Saturday, making “timely detection and response in case of aggravation of the radiation situation or leakage of radiation from spent nuclear fuel casks are currently impossible,” Energoatom said. “This time a nuclear catastrophe was miraculously avoided, but miracles cannot last forever,” it added.
Kyiv has accused Russian forces of storing heavy weaponry in and launching attacks from the plant, which they took over in early March and still occupy. Moscow, meanwhile, has claimed Ukrainian troops are targeting the complex. Fears about the security of Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant have been growing since Russian forces seized the site, but reached an inflection point on Friday when shelling damaged a high-voltage power line and forced one of the plant’s reactors to stop operating, despite no radioactive leak being detected.
The director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Mariano Grossi, said he was alarmed by the reports of damage and demanded that an IAEA team of experts urgently be allowed to visit the plant, to assess and safeguard the complex. “I’m extremely concerned by the shelling yesterday at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, which underlines the very real risk of a nuclear disaster that could threaten public health and the environment in Ukraine and beyond,” Grossi said in a statement Saturday. “Military action jeopardizing the safety and security of the Zaporizhzya nuclear power plant is completely unacceptable and must be avoided at all costs,” he added.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has accused Russia of using Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant to wreak terror in Europe, said Sunday that he spoke with European Council President Charles Michel about the situation at the complex. “Russian nuclear terror requires a stronger response from the international community – sanctions on the Russian nuclear industry and nuclear fuel,” Zelensky tweeted.
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