IAEA: Shelling at Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Plant Raises ‘Real Risk’ of Nuclear Disaster
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is growing increasingly alarmed by military action at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya nuclear plant, warning that artillery shelling at the plant site on Aug. 5 underlines a “very real risk of a nuclear disaster.”
IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi in a statement on Aug. 6 said new information about the Russian-Ukraine conflict at the site poses a “serious situation.” The information suggests that while there has been no damage to the 6-GW Zaporizhzhya nuclear plant’s six reactors and no radiological release, “there is damage elsewhere on the site,” he said.
Military action at Zaporizhzhya—Europe’s largest nuclear power plant—has ramped up in recent days. Russia occupied the plant, which is located in the southern part of Ukraine, in March—relatively early in its occupation of Ukraine. The nuclear plant continues to be operated by Energoatom, Ukraine’s state-owned entity. All 15 of Ukraine’s nuclear reactors are pressurized water reactors of Russian VVER design and are located at four plant sites.…
