The nuclear safety situation at the Zaporizhia NPP (ZNPP) is deteriorating following a drone strike that hit the road around the plant site perimeter, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said in his latest update.
“Yet again we see an escalation of the nuclear safety and security dangers facing the Zaporizhia NPP. I remain extremely concerned and reiterate my call for maximum restraint from all sides and for strict observance of the five concrete principles established for the protection of the plant.”
The IAEA Support & Assistance Mission to Zaporizhia (ISAMZ) team was informed by ZNPP that an explosive carried by a drone had detonated just outside of the plant’s protected area. The impact site was close to the essential cooling water sprinkler ponds and about 100 metres from the Dniprovska power line, the only remaining 750 kilovolt (kV) line providing a power supply to ZNPP.
The team immediately visited the area and reported that the damage seemed to have been caused by a drone equipped with an explosive payload. There were no casualties and no impact on any NPP equipment. However, there was impact to the road between the two main gates of ZNPP.
ZNPP reported on its Telegram channel that a drone of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) had dropped a shell near the power units of the Zaporizhia NPP. “Today at seven in the morning, an AFU drone dropped a charge on the road that runs along the power units from the outside of the perimeter. This road is constantly used by staff. No-one was injured. But once again, there has been a direct threat to the safety of personnel and the station.”
ZNPP Director Yuriy Chernichuk, said the attack was “another attempt by the Kiev regime to stage a terrorist attack”. He also noted that, “despite the actions of Ukrainian nationalists, no violations of the conditions of safe operation of the nuclear power plant were recorded, the staff is working normally, and the radiation situation is within the normal range”.
The team has reported that military activity in the area – including very close to the plant – had been intense for the past week. The team has heard frequent explosions, repetitive heavy machine gun and rifle fire and artillery at various distances from the plant. “There is no sign of the military activity in the vicinity of ZNPP abating, despite Director General Grossi’s repeated calls for restraint.”
Earlier, ZNPP informed the IAEA team that artillery struck the local power and water substation in the nearby operators’ town of Energodar. The attack caused the failure of two transformers, leading to a citywide power outage. As a result, water had to be supplied using diesel generators. Power was restored the next day.
Acting Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the International Organisations in Vienna, Roman Ustinov again called on the IAEA to identify those responsible for the attack on the station. Multiple Russian officials had made similar demands following the earlier drone attack on one of the ZNPP cooling towers that resulted in considerable damage.
Meanwhile Russian media cited various sources alleging that Ukraine was planning an attack on the Zaporizhia and Kursk NPPs using a “dirty bomb”. Russian military journalist Marat Khairullin reported on 16 August, citing Ukrainian sources, that the Kiev regime was “preparing a nuclear false flag – an explosion using a dirty bomb” which would target “the storage sites of spent nuclear fuel at a nuclear power plant”. He said the device had already been prepared at the Vostochny Mining and Processing Plant in the city of Zholte Voda in the Dnipropetrovsk region.
The Department of Internal Affairs of the Military-Civil Administration of the Kharkiv region also reported receiving data from captured Ukrainian nationalists that the Kiev regime has plans to attack Russian nuclear facilities.
Military expert Igor Nikulin, a former member of the UN Disarmament Commission, considered it to be a real threat of nuclear provocation from Ukraine. Russian Foreign Ministry’s Ambassador-at-Large Rodion Miroshnik called on Western countries to take seriously information about Kiev’s preparation of such a provocation.
The Russian Defence Ministry said it had “received information through independent channels about the preparation of the Kiev regime for a strike on the Kursk nuclear power plant”.
The Ministry said it regarded such actions “as a direct and clear violation of the international convention adopted by the UN General Assembly resolution on Combating Acts of Nuclear Terrorism of April 13, 2005.” It added: “If the Kiev regime starts implementing criminal plans aimed at creating a man-made catastrophe in the European part of the continent with radioactive contamination of vast territories, tough retaliatory military and military – technical measures will be immediately taken.”
A similar statement was made by the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, calling on “international organisations, especially the UN and the IAEA, to immediately condemn the provocative actions being prepared by the Kiev regime and prevent violations of the nuclear and physical security of the Kursk NPP, which could result in a large-scale man-made disaster in Europe”.
Ukraine denied the accusations. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said the Armed Forces of Ukraine have “no intentions or opportunities to commit any such actions”.
