IAEA Warns ‘Something Very, Very Catastrophic Could Take Place’ at Ukraine Nuclear Plant

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Rafael Grossi told the United Nations on Tuesday that Russia and Ukraine are “playing with fire” by fighting around the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP). Grossi warned “something very, very catastrophic could take place.” 

“The first important safety pillar that exists in any nuclear facility is not to violate its physical integrity,” Grossi explained. “And unfortunately… this has happened. This happened and this continues to happen.”

“The physical attack, wittingly or unwittingly – the hits that this facility has received and that I could personally see and assess together with my experts – is simply unacceptable,” he warned.

Grossi and a 14-member team of IAEA inspectors visited Zaporizhzhia last week. They issued a grim report of their findings on Tuesday, warning that buildings housing “fresh” nuclear fuel and radioactive waste have been damaged in fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces. 

In one hair-raising incident, the report described ZNPP’s radiation monitoring system shutting down for 24 hours due to damage from shelling.

Grossi declined to single out one side or the other for blame. Russia and Ukraine constantly accuse each other of endangering the nuclear plant.

IAEA inspectors said artillery shells “could have impacted safety related structures, systems and components, and could have caused significant safety impacts, loss of lives and personnel injuries.”

“The team closely witnessed shelling in the vicinity of the ZNPP, in particular on 3 Sept. when the team was instructed to evacuate to the ground level of the Administrative Building. Moreover, the team observed damage at different locations caused by reported events with some of the damage being close to the reactor buildings,” Grossi said.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday called for an immediate halt to all military operations around the plant, followed by the establishment of a “demilitarized perimeter.”

“Specifically, that will include the commitment by Russian forces to withdraw military personnel and equipment from that perimeter and the commitment by Ukrainian forces not to move in,” Guterres elaborated.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky endorsed Guterres’ proposals on Tuesday night, but blamed Russia for putting the entire world “on the radiation disaster edge,” and said the world must force Russia to “stop terror.”

“If the content of this proposal is to demilitarize the territory of the nuclear power plant — and this is logical, as it was the Russian military presence that put the Zaporizhzhia plant on the brink of a radiation disaster — then we can support such a demilitarized protection zone,” Zelensky said.

“I believe that the world not only deserves but needs the representatives of the IAEA to force Russia to demilitarize the territory of the ZNPP and return complete control to Ukraine,” Zelensky said.

One of Zelensky’s advisers, Mykhailo Podolyak, told Reuters on Wednesday that the IAEA did not lay out a clear agenda for reducing Russia’s dangerous presence at the plant.

“The key part missing in Mr. Grossi’s report: There is no definite algorithm of what we must do,” Podolyak said.

“It says both sides have to negotiate, but it doesn’t say that Russian troops must vacate the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. It doesn’t mention a 10-15 kilometer demilitarization area,” he complained.

The IAEA inspectors mentioned seeing Russian military vehicles and equipment around the ZNPP, including “several military trucks” inside the turbine halls of two of the six reactors. The report said the presence of military hardware inside the plant was extremely dangerous.

Unsurprisingly, the Russians responded by claiming Ukrainian forces were the threat to safety at Zaporizhzhia and accusing the United Nations of covering for them.

“We regret that in your report on the safeguards implementation in Ukraine since April to September of this year, which appeared literally a couple of hours ago, this source of shelling is not directly named,” Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vassily Nebenzia told Grossi at the U.N. Security Council meeting on Tuesday.

“It is important to call things by their name,” Nebenzia goaded Grossi.

Nebenzia said Russia welcomed the presence of two IAEA inspectors left behind at ZNPP, and said they could help prevent Ukraine’s “heinous provocations.” He insisted only the presence of Russian troops at the site was “preventing a radiation disaster” from occurring.

In fact, the IAEA inspectors noted that over a thousand Ukrainian workers are keeping the plant under control, and they endure constant abuse from occupying Russian forces, putting them “under constant high stress and pressure.”