At least a dozen shells exploded at a large nuclear plant in southern Ukraine on Sunday, Ukrainian and Russian authorities said, damaging equipment in attacks that the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog agency called “extremely disturbing”. Russian and Ukrainian nuclear energy authorities each blamed the other side’s forces for the strikes, the latest to hit the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, which is the largest in Europe. The attacks have raised fears of a serious nuclear accident at the plant, which is occupied by Russian forces, although so far there have been no reports of any leak of radiation.
“Explosions occurred at the site of this major nuclear power plant, which is completely unacceptable,” the director general of the UN International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Mariano Grossi, said. “Whoever is behind this, it must stop immediately. As I have said many times before, you’re playing with fire!” Citing information provided by plant management, the IAEA team on the ground said there had been damage to some buildings, systems and equipment at the site, but none of them critical for nuclear safety so far.
Repeated shelling of the planthas raised concern about the potential for a grave accident just 500 km from the site of the world’s worst nuclear accident, the 1986 Chornobyl disaster. Energoatom, Ukraine’s state nuclear company, said onSunday that the shelling continued “all morning” and damaged equipment including water storage tanks and a steam purge generator system. “At least 12 hits were recorded,” the company said in a post on the Telegram messaging app.
Russia’s nuclear agency, Rosenergoatom, blamed Ukraine’s military for the shelling. An adviser to the company’s director general, Renat Karchaa, told the state-owned Russian news agency Tass that 15 shells had landed. “Any artillery strikes at a plant jeopardise nuclear safety,” he said, adding that abuilding where nuclear fuel is stored had been hit.
The extent of the damage to the facilities was not clear. Russian forces seized the Zaporizhzhia plant in March. Over the summer, shelling has repeatedly struck the plant’s facilities, including storage tanks for spent nuclear fuel, and the complex has been occasionally disconnected from external power because of attacks that have damaged electricity lines. Both sides have blamed each other for the strikes. As a safety measure, all of the reactors have been cycled down.
“Explosions occurred at the site of this major nuclear power plant, which is completely unacceptable,” the director general of the UN International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Mariano Grossi, said. “Whoever is behind this, it must stop immediately. As I have said many times before, you’re playing with fire!” Citing information provided by plant management, the IAEA team on the ground said there had been damage to some buildings, systems and equipment at the site, but none of them critical for nuclear safety so far.
Repeated shelling of the planthas raised concern about the potential for a grave accident just 500 km from the site of the world’s worst nuclear accident, the 1986 Chornobyl disaster. Energoatom, Ukraine’s state nuclear company, said onSunday that the shelling continued “all morning” and damaged equipment including water storage tanks and a steam purge generator system. “At least 12 hits were recorded,” the company said in a post on the Telegram messaging app.
Russia’s nuclear agency, Rosenergoatom, blamed Ukraine’s military for the shelling. An adviser to the company’s director general, Renat Karchaa, told the state-owned Russian news agency Tass that 15 shells had landed. “Any artillery strikes at a plant jeopardise nuclear safety,” he said, adding that abuilding where nuclear fuel is stored had been hit.
The extent of the damage to the facilities was not clear. Russian forces seized the Zaporizhzhia plant in March. Over the summer, shelling has repeatedly struck the plant’s facilities, including storage tanks for spent nuclear fuel, and the complex has been occasionally disconnected from external power because of attacks that have damaged electricity lines. Both sides have blamed each other for the strikes. As a safety measure, all of the reactors have been cycled down.
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