“We are getting dangerously close to a nuclear accident” in Zaporizhia, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) warned on Monday, noting that it was “impossible” to know who was responsible for the recent attacks against the Ukrainian nuclear power plant.
The Zaporizhia site (ZNPP), occupied since March 2022 by Russia in southern Ukraine, suffered a series of drone attacks from April 7, with Moscow and kyiv mutually blaming each other for responsibility.
Asked by journalists about the origin of these recent attacks, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi assured that “in this case it is simply impossible” to identify the country responsible, as the attacks were carried out by drones that can take detours and “be obtained virtually anywhere.”
“So the scientific evidence is not there to allow us to say indisputably that it comes from this or that,” he insisted.
Wherever they come from, these “reckless attacks”, the first to directly target the largest power plant in Europe since November 2022, “must stop immediately”, he pleaded during a meeting of the Council of Europe. UN Security Council dedicated to this issue.
“Although fortunately they did not cause a radiological incident this time, they greatly increased the risk at the Zaporizhzhia power plant, where nuclear safety is already compromised,” added the director general of the body. UN agency, which has experts on site.
They also constitute a “dangerous precedent, having successfully reached the containment structure of a reactor”.
“Two years of war weigh heavily on the safety of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Each of the IAEA’s seven pillars of nuclear security and safety have been compromised. We cannot stand by and do nothing while waiting for a final weight to tip the balance into an unstable balance,” he pleaded.
“We are getting dangerously close to a nuclear accident,” he insisted, calling for “a roll of the dice not to decide what will happen tomorrow.”
Even if the plant’s six reactors are shut down, “the potential dangers of a major nuclear accident remain very real.”