Russia Ukraine war update: Zaporizhzhia plant off power grid as shelling resumes; IAEA condemns ‘irresponsible’ move

As shelling on Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant renewed despite a series of warnings by the United Nations, the site lost its external power source on Saturday. According to the UN nuclear watchdog–International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)–, the electricity supply was disrupted since 1 am and added plant engineers have begun work to repair the damaged power line and the plant’s generators. Citing Ukrainian officials as well as IAEA experts at the site, it said the nuclear site is currently working on emergency diesel generators which have the capacity to bear the load cooling systems for nearly ten days.

“Plant engineers have begun work to repair the damaged power line and the plant’s generators — not all of which are currently being used — each has sufficient fuel for at least 10 days,” IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi said. Condemning the resumption of shelling on the Zaporizhzhia plant, the senior IAEA official, who had visited the site on Thursday, said hitting the plant’s sole source of external power, is tremendously “irresponsible”. Further, Grossi said he will visit Moscow in the upcoming week and added he will urge the Russian officials to ensure safety at the site.

The head of the Ukrainian Zaporizhzhia regional military administration, Oleksandr Starukh, warned of Russia’s intention to blow the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) and anticipated that “if Moscow tries to blow the site, it would become a disaster for not only Ukraine but also for Russia’s Crimea”. According to the administration, the site contains 1,200 tonnes of nuclear fuel. “If Russia decides to commit a terrorist attack, the nuclear disaster will affect the territories of both Russia and Ukraine,” the administration said in a Telegram post. “One nuclear bomb contains 9 kilograms of uranium or plutonium, and our station has 1,200 tons,” it added. 

Significant amounts of nuclear material remain in various facilities

It is pertinent to mention here that the Russian forces had attacked the nuclear plant nearly four days after they started a full-fledged war against Ukraine. This raised grave concerns regarding the safety and security of the site. Since then, the Ukrainian government has been alleging that the Russian forces are not giving proper space to the plant officials to run the site properly, a claim that Moscow has denied multiple times. Also, the site has been undergoing decommissioning since the 1986 accident. According to the IAEA, significant amounts of nuclear material remain in various facilities at the site in the form of spent fuel and other radioactive waste. 

Image: AP