The director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) appealed to the UN Security Council on Tuesday for Russia and Ukraine to support five “concrete principles” in order to ensure the safety of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia power plant and avoid a “nuclear accident.”
“We are lucky that a nuclear accident has not happened yet,” Rafael Grossi said.
The IAEA head recalled that the plant, occupied by the Russian army, had been cut off from the electricity grid seven times, having to rely on emergency generators, the “last line of defence against a nuclear accident,” to cool the reactor.
The head of the UN body has been conducting negotiations for months to ensure the protection of the site, located in southeastern Ukraine, where the situation is considered highly precarious due to bombardments linked to the fighting.
With this in mind, he presented his “basic principles necessary to prevent a nuclear accident” to the Council on Tuesday.
First among them, there must be no attack of any kind from or against the plant, in particular targeting reactors, spent fuel or other infrastructure, or personnel.
Other principles are that the site should not be used to store heavy weapons or military personnel and that the plant cannot be disconnected from the electricity grid.
The IAEA intends to begin monitoring the application of these principles through its mission to the site, Grossi added. He urged both parties to respect the principles, and called on Security Council members to support them unambiguously.
The power station, the largest in Europe, is located on the banks of the Dnieper River which, in that area, separates the two sides. It has been fired upon several times and has been cut off from the power grid seven times since it was taken over by the Russian army on 4 March 2022.
Rafael Grossi, who has a team of experts on site, visited the plant at the end of March and has since intensified his efforts, warning of “the very real danger of a nuclear accident.”
Initially mooted, the idea of a demilitarised zone around the site was abandoned in favour of realistic measures acceptable to both Kyiv and Moscow.
