More than a dozen “powerful explosions” hit the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine on Saturday night and this Sunday (20), the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said.
The largest nuclear power plant in Europe has been under Russian control since the beginning of the invasion of the country in February this year. Russia confirmed the strikes on Sunday and said they were carried out by Kiev forces but that no radiation leaks had been detected.
An IAEA team on site claims that there was damage to some buildings, systems and equipment at the plant. They said they could see the explosions from their windows.
“The news from our team yesterday and this morning is extremely disturbing,” UN nuclear agency chief Rafael Grossi said in a statement.
“Explosions have occurred at the site of this large nuclear power plant, which is completely unacceptable. Whoever is behind this must stop immediately. As I have said many times before, you are playing with fire!”
The Zaporizhia plant has six Soviet-designed water-cooled and water-moderated VVER-1000 V-320 reactors containing uranium-235, which has a half-life of over 700 million years.
The reactors are shut down, but there is a risk that the nuclear fuel will overheat if the power that drives the cooling systems is cut.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said Ukraine had fired projectiles at power lines supplying the plant, while Russian news agency Tass reported that some of the site’s storage facilities had been hit, citing an official at nuclear power operator Rosenergoatom. .
“They bombed not only yesterday but also today, they are bombing now,” said Renat Karchaa, adviser to the CEO of Rosenergoatom, adding that any artillery strike on the site posed a threat to nuclear security.
Karchaa told TASS that the projectiles were fired near a dry nuclear waste storage facility and a building that houses spent nuclear fuel, but that no radioactive emissions were detected at the time.
The Kremlin Army released a statement saying the Ukrainians “do not stop their provocations aimed at creating a threat of man-made catastrophe at the Zaporizh nuclear power plant”,
Ukrainian authorities did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Since the Russian invasion of the country, both Kiev and Moscow have accused each other of attacking the plant and risking a nuclear accident.
The]facility supplied about one-fifth of Ukraine’s pre-war electricity and was forced to operate on standby generators several times.
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