Ukrainian servicemen take part in military exercises in the ghost town of Pripyat, near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant on February 4, 2022.
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The UN nuclear watchdog warned on Wednesday that Russia’s offensive against Ukraine increases the risk of nuclear accidents, calling for restraint from all actions that could jeopardize the safe operation of Ukraine’s nuclear facilities.
This comes when Russia’s war with Ukraine enters its seventh day, with fighting raging across the country.
The International Atomic Energy Agency says Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is the first time a military conflict has taken place among the facilities of a large and established nuclear energy program – which in this case includes the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster at a nuclear power plant. at the Chernobyl Plant in 1986.
“The situation in Ukraine is unprecedented and I remain seriously concerned,” IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said in an introductory statement to the Board of Governors of 35 countries.
“The safety and security of nuclear facilities and nuclear and other radioactive materials in Ukraine must not be endangered under any circumstances.
Grossi reiterated his call to refrain from all measures that could compromise the security of nuclear and other radioactive materials, warning that “any such incident could have serious consequences, exacerbating human suffering and causing damage to the environment.”
The UN nuclear watchdog said Ukraine’s four nuclear power plants continued to operate normally, but stressed that there was “nothing normal” in the extraordinary circumstances in which plant workers managed to maintain reactors that produce half of Ukraine’s electricity.
Grossi of the IAEA said the agency was informed by Russia on Tuesday that its troops had taken control of the area around Ukraine’s Zaporozhye nuclear power plant.
Located in the southeastern part of the country, the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant is the largest in Ukraine and has six of its 15 operating nuclear reactors.
The new safe confinement seals the Shelter for Sites, also known as the Sarcophagus, a temporary structure built in 1986 over the wreckage of the 4th reactor of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, Kyiv region, northern Ukraine.
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Last week, Ukraine’s nuclear agency reported that radiation at the decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear power plant had exceeded control levels after Russian troops seized the area. This was thought to be due to the movement of a large number of heavy military vehicles violating the soil.
Grossi said the IAEA had found that radiation levels at the site remained low enough not to pose a danger to the public.
“A nuclear accident can have a serious impact outside the borders of the country in which it occurs, and the world relies on the IAEA to inform it with accurate and timely information,” Grossi said.
It was therefore crucial, Grossi said, for the IAEA to remain able to communicate with Ukraine’s regulator on the country’s nuclear security.
“This is especially important during an armed conflict, which increases the risk of nuclear accidents and makes the response more difficult.
“Potentially severe consequences”
The UN nuclear supervisory authority said Ukraine’s State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate had informed the agency on Sunday that Russian missiles had struck the site of a radioactive waste disposal facility in the capital, Kyiv. There were no reports of damage to the building or traces of radioactive release, Grossi said.
It came a day after a Ukrainian regulator said an electrical transformer at a similar burial facility near the northeastern city of Kharkiv had been damaged, Grossi continued, noting that the incident also occurred without any signs of radioactive release.
“Both incidents underscore the risk that facilities with radioactive material could suffer damage during the armed conflict with potentially serious consequences,” Grossi said.
The IAEA has called on all member states, including Russia, to comply with international law and to comply with a 2009 resolution that “any armed attack and threat against nuclear facilities intended for peaceful purposes constitutes a violation of the principles of the UN Charter, international law.” law and the Agency’s Statutes’.
Concluding his introductory address to the IAEA Board of Governors, Grossi said: “Let me conclude: the best course of action to ensure the safety and security of Ukraine’s and its people’s nuclear facilities would be to end this armed conflict now. . ”