SWITZERLAND: There is an “urgent” need to establish a “security protection zone” at the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia power plant in Ukraine to prevent a nuclear catastrophe, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) declared Tuesday.
“The situation in Ukraine is unprecedented,” the United Nations nuclear watchdog warned. “It is the first time a military conflict has occurred amid the facilities of a large, established nuclear power” program, it said in a report.
A nuclear accident would be a disaster not just for Ukraine, but also for the countries “beyond its borders.”
“The IAEA is ready to start immediately the consultations leading to the urgent establishment of such a nuclear safety and security protection zone” at the plant, the IAEA said.
The dire warning from the Vienna-based organization that is not given to hyperbole came just 24 hours after the Ukrainian energy company that runs the Zaporizhzhia complex reported that the last line connecting the power plant to the Ukrainian electrical grid was disconnected after days of “intensive shelling.” The three other lines went down earlier in the war. The Zaporizhzhia plant in the southeastern Ukrainian town of Enerhodar went online in the 1980s when the country was part of the then-Soviet Union and provided up to 20% of Ukraine’s power after independence. Its six reactors generate more power than any such facility in the United States. But it was captured in the early days of the Russian invasion, which began in February.
- BBC
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