The explosions that occurred on Saturday and Sunday in the vicinity of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant “are unacceptable,” said the general director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
“The news from our team yesterday and this morning is extremely worrying. There have been explosions at the site of this major nuclear power plant, which is completely unacceptable. Whoever is behind this must stop immediately. As I have already said many times: They are playing with fire!“said Rafael Mariano Grossi.
Powerful explosions rocked the area of the Ukrainian nuclear power plant last night and again this morning, sharply ending a period of relative calm at the facility and further underscoring the urgent need to take action to help prevent a nuclear accident there. .
In what appeared to be a new shelling near and at the site of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, UN agency experts present in Zaporizhia informed the Agency’s headquarters that more than a dozen explosions were heard in a short period of time in the morning local time. The IAEA team was also able to see some of the explosions from their windows.
Damage to plant buildings, systems and equipment
Citing information provided by the plant’s management, the IAEA team said that there had been damage to some buildings, systems and equipment at the Zaporizhia site, but none of them so far critical to nuclear safety. No casualties have been reported. IAEA experts are in close contact with site management and will continue to assess and report on the situation.
Grossi renewed his urgent appeal to the two parties to the conflict to agree and implement a nuclear safety zone around the nuclear power plant as soon as possible. In recent months, he has held intensive consultations with Ukraine and Russia on the establishment of such a zone, but so far no agreement has been reached.
“I won’t give up until this zone is a reality. As the apparent ongoing bombing shows, it is needed more than ever,” he said.
