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Ukraine and Russia accused each other on Wednesday of plotting to attack one of the world’s largest nuclear power plants, but neither side presented evidence to support their claim of an imminent threat to the facility in southeastern Ukraine occupied by Russian forces.
The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant has been of interest since Russian forces took control of it and its personnel in the early stages of the war. Russia and Ukraine regularly blame each other for the bombing near the station that caused the blackout.
Over the past year, the United Nations’ atomic watchdog has repeatedly expressed alarm at the prospect of a radiological catastrophe like the one that occurred at Chernobyl after a reactor explosion in 1986.
All six reactors in Zaporizhzhia have been shut down, but the plant still needs power and qualified personnel to operate critical cooling systems and other safety features.
Ukraine recently alleged that Moscow may try to cause a deliberate leak in an effort to derail Kiev’s ongoing counter-offensive in the surrounding Zaporizhia region. Russia is suspected of blowing up a dam in southern Ukraine last month with a similar aim.
Citing the latest intelligence reports, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed Tuesday night that Russian forces had placed “explosive-like objects” on top of several power units at the plant to “simulate” an attack from outside. “Blowing them up should not damage power units but may create an image of bombing from Ukraine,” according to a statement from the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has officials stationed at the Russian-controlled plant, which is still run by its Ukrainian staff. IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said his agency’s most recent inspection of the plant found no activity related to explosives, “but we remain on high alert.”
“You know, there’s a lot of fighting. I was there a few weeks ago, and there’s a connection there very close to the factory, so we can’t relax,” Grossi said during a visit to Japan.
In Russia, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov raised the specter of a possible “catastrophic” provocation by the Ukrainian army at the nuclear plant, which is the largest in Europe, where he said: “The situation is very tense. There is a great threat,” Peskov said in response to a reporter’s question about the station. with sabotage by the Kiev regime, which could be catastrophic in its consequences”. He also claimed that the Kremlin was taking “all measures” to counter the alleged Ukrainian threat.
Grossi said he was aware of both Kiev and Moscow’s claims and reiterated that “nuclear power plants should not be attacked under any circumstances”.
“A nuclear power plant should not be used as a military base,” he said.
According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a think tank, a Russian attack on the station “would not likely result in the widespread release of large amounts of radiation” because of the precautionary steps taken by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
“An explosion in Zaporizhia would spread radiation and sow panic, but the actual off-site radiation risk would be relatively low,” the research center said in a recent assessment, adding that winds could blow some radiation towards Russia.
The International Institute for Strategic Studies said the most likely scenarios are a Russian explosion that exposes one of the reactor cores and starts a fire that burns spent fuel, or an explosion involving dry fuel depleted on site that would carry radiation away by wind. She added that neither of these two scenarios would bring about a disaster the size of Chernobyl or Fukushima, the Japanese nuclear plant that was destroyed by the tsunami.
Rinat Karcha, an advisor to the Russian state nuclear company Rosenergoatom, said there was “no basis” for Zelensky’s claims of a plot to simulate an explosion. “Why do we need explosives there? This is nonsense,” said Karcha, “intended to” maintain tension around the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant.
Russian media on Tuesday quoted Karcha as saying that the Ukrainian military planned to hit the plant early Wednesday with munitions filled with nuclear waste. As of Wednesday afternoon, there was no indication of such an attack.
Last week, Ukrainian emergency workers conducted a drill to prepare for a possible radiation release from the plant. In the event of a nuclear disaster at the plant, approximately 300,000 people will be evacuated from areas closest to the facility, according to the country’s emergency services.
Ukrainian officials said the reactors that have been shut down are protected by thick concrete domes.
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