The IAEA asks for a safety zone around Zaporizhia to avoid a nuclear disaster

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) published this Tuesday a report on the current situation of the Ukrainian nuclear power plant in Zaporizhia, occupied by Russian forces and the target of bombing in recent weeks. In the text, the dependent agency of the United Nations, which visited the facilities last weekhas recommended that a security zone be established around the plant and that stop the bombing “immediately” to avoid a possible radioactive disaster.

“This requires an agreement of all parties for the establishment of a nuclear safety and protection zone around the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant,” says the IAEA report released Tuesday in Vienna.

Zaporizhia, disconnected since Monday afternoon of the Ukrainian network, has been the scene of attacks of which Russia and Ukraine accuse each other and which pose a risk of nuclear disaster for months. “The current situation is unsustainable and the best measure to guarantee the safety of nuclear facilities in Ukraine and its population would be for this armed conflict to end now”, is collected in the document of 52 pages.

recommendations

The IAEA exposes seven concrete recommendations to avoid the risks of a nuclear disaster at the plant, the largest in Europe with its six reactors, and the establishment of this security zone is the first of them.

“Although the ongoing bombardment has not yet triggered a nuclear emergency, it continues to represent a constant threat to nuclear security,” says the report, collected by the agency. EFE.

Starting at 19:00 GMT, the Director General of the IAEA, the Argentine Rafael Grossi, will present the conclusions of the document before a UN Security Council meeting in New York.

In addition to the security recommendations, the document confirms the presence of Russian military material inside the plant and the presence of personnel from the Russian state nuclear company Rosatom, something criticized by the IAEA.

[Zaporiyia pierde su último reactor y Ucrania se queda sin red eléctrica tras los últimos bombardeos]

“The team noted the presence of Russian military personnelvehicles and equipment at various locations at the Zaporizhia NPP, including several military trucks on the ground floor of the turbine halls of Unit (Reactor) 1 and Unit (Reactor) 2,” the agency said.

Nuclear inspectors ask that these military equipment be removed because they interfere with possible security operations at the plant and those spaces were not designed for military use, the agency collects EFE.

The UN agency criticizes the presence in the central staff of Rosatom, the Russian nuclear agency

The IAEA also criticizes the presence of personnel from Rosatom, the Russian nuclear agency, as interfering with “normal lines of command or operational authority and creating potential friction with regard to decision-making.”

The report shows concern about the deterioration of various elements of the plant and the technical difficulty in repairing them.

“The team witnessed that various electrical equipment in the area of ​​the maneuvering yard were damaged due to the recent bombings and that repairs to some of this equipment would take a long time, since the spare parts were made to measure,” the document states.