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Nuclear safety at the Zaporizhya plant in southeastern Ukraine is in a “precarious state”. The alert was issued this Wednesday (22) by the director general of the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency), Rafael Grossi, who warned of the risk of an accident.
“The last emergency power line” at the plant, damaged since March 1, remains “disconnected and undergoing repairs”, explained the director general of the agency in a statement.
The plant has depended for three weeks on electricity supplied by a single external 750 kV line, and “any damage to it will cause the total loss of power supply to the plant”, reiterated Rossi. The line guarantees the cooling of the plant’s reactors.
Without the electricity from these generators, overheating of the reactor fuel can lead to a nuclear accident, like the one that occurred at the Fukushima plant in Japan in 2011.
“Nuclear safety at the plant remains precarious”, indicated Grossi. “I once again call on all parties involved in the conflict to commit to ensuring nuclear safety and protecting the planet,” he urged. “We are playing with fire,” he warned.
disconnection
On March 9, the plant was occupied by the Russian army and was disconnected from the Ukrainian power grid for 11 hours after an attack.
Diesel generators were switched on to provide minimal power to security systems, according to state-owned atomic energy company Energoatom, which warned of the risk of an accident.
For the high representative of the European Union, Josep Borrell, Russia is endangering the security of the entire European continent. “This is a serious violation of nuclear safety provoked by Russia… Zaporizhia is the biggest nuclear power plant in Europe.”
Re-election
In early March, the director general of AEIA, Rafael Grossi, was re-elected until 2027 to head the agency.
In August of last year, he was personally at the Zaporizia plant with a team of 14 inspectors. At the time, Grossi claimed that “the physical integrity” of the nuclear power plant had been “violated”.
Since the start of the war in Ukraine on February 24, the risk of a nuclear accident has grown with the intensification of Russian attacks and fighting in the region.
Many of the professionals who work there have fled the country and the few who remain in Zaporizia are accumulating hours of work in precarious conditions to keep it running.
The United States even asked in September that all military operations around nuclear power plants in Ukraine be stopped. The request had already been made by the country’s authorities.
(With information from AFP)