Guterres calls the attacks on the Zaporizhia nuclear plant in Ukraine “suicidal”

First modification: 08/08/2022 – 21:10

“Any attack on a nuclear plant is suicidal.” António Guterres, Secretary General of the UN, thus referred to the attacks against the Ukrainian nuclear plant in Zaporizhia, under Russian control. As if that were not enough, he did it from the Hiroshima Peace Memorial, where he attended the ceremony to commemorate the 77th anniversary of the first nuclear bomb.

Meanwhile, traces of missiles and craters have alarmingly adorned the surroundings of the power plant facilities since this weekend, after a series of attacks of which Russia and Ukraine disregard and blame each other.

International alarm has grown hand in hand with tensions between the two sides around Zaporizhia, the largest nuclear plant in Europe and the third largest in the world.

Operated by Ukrainian workers but under Russian territorial control, Moscow sought to calm things down by ensuring that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) receives “up-to-date information on the spot”.

Thus spoke María Zajárova, spokeswoman for the Foreign Ministry, who took the opportunity to reiterate that the responsibility for the attacks rests with Ukraine and to criticize the delay in the UN response.

“We hope that on the part of the UN now there really are no obstacles to organizing an international mission of the Agency to the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant,” added the diplomat.

The possibility of a visit to the IAEA plant

The potential visit of an international mission seems to be the only point where kyiv and Moscow are moving in the same direction. From the Russian Foreign Ministry they agreed with the wish expressed by the director of the IAEA, Rafael Grossi.

In the same way, the Ukrainian delegation in front of the agency assured that they expected such a step with IAEA delegates and “experts from the UN and other countries”: “Their mere presence will already improve the level of security at the plant,” according to Yevhenii Tsymbaliuk, representative of kyiv in this instance.

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However, the lack of trust between the parties seems to make it difficult for the visit to become a reality, at least for now.

To date, there have been more reproaches than facilities for the impartial review of the facilities: “The Russian side for several weeks has done everything necessary for a successful visit,” recalled the Russian Zajárova.

For its part, in June, when Grossi first proposed the visit, Ukraine criticized that it would be a way of endorsing Russian control of the territory.

What is the real risk that exists of a nuclear disaster?

The problem is that, without such a visit, it is difficult to assess the level of risk that exists in the Zaporizhia nuclear plant. On the one hand, Tsymbaliuk reported that the attacks have damaged surveillance sensors, something that would prevent control of radiation levels at some points in the facilities.

For Petro Kotin, head of the energy company Energoatom, which operates the plant, the shots did not release any radiation, but he urgently warned of the risk that, in future attacks, containers of highly radioactive used oil could be damaged: “It would be impossible to evaluate magnitude” of the disaster, he recalled.

Meanwhile, the Romanian government decided not to wait for the tragedy to prepare. At about 700 kilometers from the plant, it is not the closest foreign country to Zaporizhia (Russia is closer, and Moldova separates part of the border between Romania and Ukraine). However, the Ministry of Health asked the population to stock up “as quickly as possible” with iodine tablets due to the risk of nuclear disaster.

These pills help prevent the thyroid, one of the glands that produces hormones, from absorbing radioactive iodine that could spread. This way they can avoid effects of radiation and future cases of thyroid cancer among the exposed population.

Although Romania is not so close to the plant, it is not unreasonable to think that it could be affected. The Chernobyl accident in 1986 severely contaminated an area of ​​about 150,000 square km, which would exclude Romania, but the Nordic countries did detect radioactivity.

With EFE, Reuters and AP