2023-05-30 06:13:01
The race against time is on to protect the Ukrainian nuclear power plant in Zaporizhia, occupied since March 2022 by the Russian armybefore the probable counter-offensive of the Ukrainian forces. “We are playing with fire”, warned in recent days the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi. The situation is “very dangerous and unstable”, he repeated on Saturday, May 27, when meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the Dnieper hydroelectric power station – northeast of the Zaporizhia site.
Europe’s largest nuclear power plant is particularly vulnerable, due to fire and bombardment linked to fighting on the banks of the Dnieper River, which divides the two camps, in southeastern Ukraine. In more than a year under Russian rule, it has already been cut off seven times from the power grid, with each side accusing the other of being behind the shootings.
To avoid “the real danger of a nuclear accident”, Rafael Grossi must present this Tuesday, May 30 a plan at a UN meeting chaired by Switzerland. The head of the IAEA has been leading discussions for months to lower the tension around this installation, which was shut down in September 2022 but which produced 20% of Ukrainian electricity before the war.
Initially, its ambition was to create a demilitarized security zone around the site. But this idea, difficult to accept by Moscow and kyiv, has been abandoned. In particular, the Ukrainians do not want an agreement that would de facto recognize or authorize a Russian military presence in the plant.
“It’s very simple: don’t shoot the power plant”
The chief of the nuclear gendarme said at Reuters on May 28 that he was confident in the establishment of a “some form of protection”. “Perhaps by emphasizing less the idea of an area than the protection itself: what people should or should not do to protect instead of having a territorial concept”he added.
Details of the plan have not yet been released, but according to Reuters it would include a ban on firing from or at the plant, as well as the removal of heavy weapons stored there. “It’s very simple: don’t shoot at the plant and don’t use the plant as a military base”summed up Rafael Grossi.
The plant, which has six reactors, no longer generates current but remains connected to the Ukrainian electricity system. One of the fears concerns the impact of the cuts on the water circuits of the plant, because without electricity, the pumps which regulate the temperature inside the reactor are stopped and can no longer cool the fuel.
But the IAEA also monitors the level of one of the tanks controlled by the Russian forces. “If the reservoir level drops beyond a certain threshold, there is no more water to cool the reactors, and we have seen, particularly in January, that the water level drops dramatically. significant, he reminded Reuters. They have somehow recovered over the past few weeks. »
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