Drone attack revives fears of nuclear disaster at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia plant

Russians It is Ukrainians They accuse each other of being behind the drone attack launched in recent days on the nuclear plant in Zaporozhye, which left one dead and three injured. As a result, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) called on both sides to avoid “a major nuclear accident”.

TO LOOK: Russia denounces Ukrainian drone attack on Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant

The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe, is located on the southern front of Ukraine and has been under Russian control practically since the beginning of the military invasion in February 2022.

Despite repeated attempts by Kiev’s forces, the plant was unable to be recaptured and its six reactors have been shut down since the reservoir that supplied it with the water needed for cooling was destroyed in 2023.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova attributed the attack to Ukrainian forces and urged the international community to “understand and respond to the act of nuclear terrorism committed by the Kiev regime”.

The Ukrainian government, however, responded through the spokesman for the Military Intelligence agency, Andrí Yúsov, who assured that the Russians had “simulated” an attack on the plant. Furthermore, he recalled that Russian forces maintain troops and mines at the factory, which puts “nuclear infrastructures in danger, the civilian population” of the area.

“The authorship of the attack is something strange. In principle, it is not in Russia’s interest because it controls the plant and intends to put it into operation at some point to satisfy its energy needs. On the Ukrainian side, it is also not convenient for them because they hope to reconquer it to add it to the country’s electricity grid.“, he comments The trade international analyst Roberto Heimovits.

The IAEA, however, described the attack as “a serious incident with the potential to harm the integrity of the reactor containment system”; However, they guaranteed that the damages “did not compromise nuclear safety”.

Despite this, the director general of the nuclear agency, Rafael Grossi, warned that at least three shots affected the reactor’s containment structure, which is why he carried out “a strong appeal to military officials to refrain from any action that violates the basic principles protecting nuclear facilities”.

Rafael Grossi, director general of the IAEA, warned that the containment structure of the Zaporizhzhia reactor was affected during Sunday’s attacks. (JOE KLAMAR/AFP/)

“Any attack against a nuclear power plant is a highly irresponsible act due to the damage it can cause. The first thing that comes to mind is what happened in Chernobyl in 1986, but, above all, what would have happened if such great efforts had not been made to contain the damage.”, highlights Heimovits.

In May 2023, after carrying out a mission in which Grossi himself participated, the IAEA informed the UN Security Council that both Russia and Ukraine must comply with five major principles to avoid a nuclear disaster in Zaporizhzhia.

1. Do not use the plant to store heavy weapons or troops.
2. Do not put the plant’s electrical supply at risk.
3. Protect essential structures, systems and components.
4. Do not launch any type of attack against the nuclear plant.
5. Avoid actions that undermine these commitments.

What happened on Sunday, the 7th, obviously violates these agreements reached last year, so it remains to be seen how the organization will act in the future.

“The least the IAEA will do after that, in addition to calling for an end to the attacks, is to send a mission to verify the damage suffered by the plant and rule out any danger of a leak, no matter how small.”, highlights Heimovits.

According to the expert, the disaster that could have caused an explosion or leak in Zaporizhzhia would be comparable to what happened in Chernobyl, during the Soviet Union, and would be aggravated by the differences between the response capacity that the USSR had at the time and that that Russia or Ukraine would currently have in the midst of war.

“Had it been fully operational, Zaporizhzhia would have been another Chernobyl. Depending on the wind direction, it could have caused maximum damage to neighboring areas of Russia or Ukraine. Furthermore, unlike 1986, when all of the Soviet Union’s resources were available to contain the damage from Chernobyl, Zaporizhzhia is in a war zone, so putting out a fire would be much more difficult. Fortunately, since the reactors are shut down, there is no danger of one of them exploding and producing a massive leak of radioactivity. But this does not eliminate the risk of material leakage due to an attack, so I classify it as an irresponsible act in superlative terms.“, says Heimovits.

Source: Elcomercio