UN watchdog meets over Ukraine nuclear safety concerns, amid Russia energy attacks
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Ukraine's Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant is Europe's largest, with six reactors. While the reactors have been shut down, power is still needed for cooling, to stop them going into meltdown.
PHOTO: REUTERS
- IAEA board discussed Ukraine's nuclear safety due to Russian attacks impacting power supplies, raising "growing concern" among nations.
- Rafael Grossi called the war the "biggest threat to nuclear safety," as IAEA assesses substations crucial for Ukrainian nuclear plants.
- Russia dismissed the meeting as "absolutely politically motivated," while Ukraine urged action amid power disruptions at Chornobyl and Zaporizhzhia.
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VIENNA - The UN nuclear watchdog’s board of governors on Jan 30 discussed nuclear safety in Ukraine, with several countries expressing “growing concern” following Russian attacks on the power grid.
Energy supplies to Ukraine’s nuclear plants have been affected as Russia has pounded its neighbour’s power sector since the start of its 2022 invasion, prompting fears of a nuclear disaster.
The war in Ukraine “continues to pose the world’s biggest threat to nuclear safety”, Mr Rafael Grossi, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said when opening the board meeting.
The extraordinary meeting that lasted four hours was called after 13 countries led by the Netherlands expressed in a letter seen by AFP a “growing concern about the severity and urgency of nuclear safety risks” following a series of attacks.
Ukrainian ambassador Yurii Vitrenko told reporters before the meeting that it was “high time” for the IAEA board to discuss the situation.
A weeks-long IAEA expert mission to Ukrainian substations and power plants is under way and expected to wrap up next month, Mr Vitrenko said.
The mission will assess 10 substations “crucial to nuclear safety”, according to Mr Grossi.
Russian Ambassador Mikhail Ulyanov dismissed the board’s gathering as “absolutely politically motivated”, adding there was “no real need to hold such a meeting today”.
Last week, Ukraine’s Chornobyl nuclear power plant temporarily lost all off-site power.
Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant,
Earlier this month, Russia and Ukraine agreed to a localised ceasefire to allow repairs on the last remaining backup power line supplying Zaporizhzhia.
The line was damaged and disconnected as a result of military activity in early January.
The Zaporizhzhia plant’s six reactors have been shut down since the occupation.
But the site still needs electricity to maintain its cooling and security systems.
Moscow and Kyiv have repeatedly accused each other of risking a nuclear catastrophe by attacking the site. AFP
