The head of the UN nuclear watchdog, Rafael Grossi, began a visit on Tuesday to “independently assess” the situation at Russia’s Kursk nuclear plant following Ukraine’s unprecedented cross-border incursion into Russian territory.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has repeatedly warned about the dangers of fighting around nuclear plants following Russia’s massive military offensive in Ukraine in February 2022.
A spokesman for Russia’s nuclear agency Rosatom told AFP that Grossi had arrived at the power plant because he was personally leading a mission to assess the situation there, which he warned was “critical”.
In the early days of the conflict, Russian forces seized the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in southern Ukraine, and briefly seized the defunct Chernobyl plant in the north.
Ukraine made a sudden incursion into Kursk on August 6 and said it was advancing while Russian troops pushed deeper into eastern Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin last week accused Ukraine of trying to attack the Kursk nuclear power plant, less than 50 kilometres (30 miles) from fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces.
The IAEA confirmed that Russian authorities had told it that drone fragments were found last Thursday about 100 metres from the Kursk plant’s used nuclear fuel storage facility.
Critical condition
Grossi said on Monday that he would “independently assess what is happening” at the plant “given the serious situation.”
“The safety of all nuclear power plants is a central and fundamental concern for the IAEA,” Grossi said in a statement.
The plant is located near the Seym River, about 60 kilometers from the Russia-Ukraine border, and less than 50 kilometers from the city of Kursk, the region’s capital, which has a population of about 440,000.
The plant has four reactor units, although only two are operational with two more reactors under construction.
All four reactors are similar to those at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine, and have no protective dome around them.
In 1986, a reactor at Chernobyl exploded during a safety test, resulting in the world’s worst nuclear accident, spreading radiation across much of Europe and forcing thousands of people to evacuate.
Former IAEA official Tariq Rauf said “significant safety upgrades” had been made to these types of reactors.
Robert Kelly, the former IAEA inspection director, said: “The probability of a Chernobyl-type event where the reactor exploded and burned for days is zero.”
But he also said that an errant bomb or heavy artillery strike on fuel storage ponds could damage the fuel and release radioactive gases and particles.
Maximum Restraint
Russia has repeatedly warned of a possible attack since Ukrainian troops and tanks attacked Kursk.
The IAEA urged both Russia and Ukraine to exercise “maximum restraint” to “avoid a nuclear accident with the potential for serious radiological consequences”.
On Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukrainian forces had taken control of two more Russian settlements in the Kursk region, adding another to dozens already captured.
So far more than 130,000 people have been displaced.
Kiev has said the offensive was aimed at deterring Russian cross-border attacks into its Sumy region and to force Russia to come to the negotiating table “on its terms.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
