Nuclear plant came close to ‘radiation disaster’,
says Zelenskiy, amid calls for urgent UN visit
Warning comes after the last regular line supplying
electricity to Ukraine’s Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant was
temporarily cut
Emma
Graham-Harrison and Isobel Koshiw in Kyiv, and agencies
Fri 26 Aug
2022 02.28 BST
Volodymyr
Zelenskiy has said the world narrowly avoided a “radiation disaster” as the
last regular line supplying electricity to Ukraine’s Russian-held Zaporizhzhia
nuclear power plant was restored hours after being cut by shelling.
The
Ukranian president said officials from the International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA), the UN’s nuclear watchdog, must be given urgent access to the site.
Zelenskiy
blamed shelling on Thursday by Russia’s military for fires in the ash pits of a
nearby coal power station that disconnected the reactor complex, Europe’s
largest such facility, from the power grid. He said back-up diesel generators
ensured power supply and kept the plant safe.
“If our
station staff had not reacted after the blackout, then we would have already
been forced to overcome the consequences of a radiation accident,” he said in
an evening address. “Russia has put Ukraine and all Europeans in a situation
one step away from a radiation disaster.”
IAEA
officials should be given access to the site within days, he said, “before the
occupiers take the situation to the point of no return”.
Negotiations
are under way for the UN’s nuclear watchdog to visit the site, and Ukraine’s
top nuclear official told the Guardian that IAEA inspectors could arrive by the
end of the month.
Until then,
continued fighting puts the plant, and potentially much of Europe, at risk. A
nuclear accident could spread radiation far across the continent.
Ukrainian
state nuclear company Energoatom said Thursday’s incident represented the
plant’s first complete disconnection in its nearly 40 years of operation.
Electricity is used for cooling and safety systems.
Russia,
which invaded Ukraine in February, captured the plant in March and has
controlled it since, although Ukrainian technicians still operate it.
Russia and
Ukraine have accused each other of shelling the site, fuelling fears of a
nuclear disaster. The White House called on Russia to agree to a demilitarised
zone around the plant, after Joe Biden spoke to Zelenskiy on Thursday.
The US
state department also cautioned Russia against redirecting energy from the
site.
“The
electricity that it produces rightly belongs to Ukraine and any attempt to
disconnect the plant from the Ukrainian power grid and redirect to occupied
areas is unacceptable,” spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters. “No country
should turn a nuclear power plant into an active war zone and we oppose any
Russian efforts to weaponise or divert energy from the plant.”
The IAEA
said Ukraine had informed it the plant temporarily lost connection, “further
underlining the urgent need for an IAEA expert mission to travel to the facility”.
“We can’t
afford to lose any more time. I’m determined to personally lead an IAEA mission
to the plant in the next few days,” the organisation’s director general, Rafael
Grossi, said.
Writing on
Telegram, Vladimir Rogov, a Russian-appointed official in the occupied town of
Enerhodar near the plant, said satellite photos showed the local forest in
flames. He said towns in the area lost power for several hours on Thursday.
“This was
caused by the disconnection of power lines from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power
station as a result of provocations by Zelenskiy’s fighters,” Rogov claimed.
“The disconnection itself was triggered by a fire and short circuit on the
power lines.”
Nuclear
experts have warned of the risk of damage to the plant’s spent nuclear fuel
pools or its reactors. Cuts in the power needed to cool the pools could cause a
disastrous meltdown.
There have
been growing international concerns about safety at Europe’s largest nuclear
plant. It has been occupied by Russian forces since the start of the war, and
they are now using it to house military vehicles and equipment.
The complex
supplied more than 20% of Ukraine’s electricity needs and its loss would pile
new strain on the government.
The head of
Energoatom’s told the Guardian on Wednesday that Russian engineers had drawn up
a blueprint to permanently disconnect the plant from the national grid and
connect it to the Russian power network instead. Petro Kotin said the plan was
ostensibly aimed at maintaining power supply to the plant if all connections to
Ukraine were cut off by fighting, as they were on Thursday. But Ukraine fears
Russia may deliberately cut the lines.
Russian and
Ukrainian forces have reached a relative stalemate in recent months, partly
after the west supplied new long-range missiles that have hampered Russia’s
supply lines and ability to continue with its offensives. Ukraine says it also
does not have the weapons it needs to launch a decisive counteroffensive.
With
Reuters and Agence France-Presse
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