we are “dangerously approaching a nuclear accident”, according to the IAEA

“We are getting dangerously close to a nuclear accident” in Zaporizhia, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi warned on Monday, denouncing the recent attacks against the Ukrainian nuclear power plant.

“Reckless attacks”

The Zaporizhia site (ZNPP), occupied since March 2022 by Russia in southern Ukraine, suffered a series of drone attacks from April 7, with Moscow and kyiv mutually blaming each other for responsibility.

“These reckless attacks”, the first to directly target Europe’s largest power plant since November 2022, “must stop immediately”, pleaded Rafael Grossi during a meeting of the UN Security Council dedicated to this issue.

“Although fortunately they did not cause a radiological incident this time, they greatly increased the risk at the Zaporizhzhia power plant, where nuclear safety is already compromised,” added the director general of the body. UN agency, which has experts on site.

“We cannot stand by and do nothing”

They also constitute a “dangerous precedent, having successfully reached the containment structure of a reactor”.

“Two years of war weigh heavily on the safety of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Each of the IAEA’s seven pillars of nuclear security and safety have been compromised. We cannot stand by and do nothing while waiting for a final weight to tip the balance into an unstable balance,” he pleaded.

“We are getting dangerously close to a nuclear accident,” he insisted, calling for “a roll of the dice not to decide what will happen tomorrow.”

Even if the plant’s six reactors are shut down, “the potential dangers of a major nuclear accident remain very real.”