A safety zone is needed surrounding Ukraine power plant to avoid nuclear disaster, U.N. watchdog says
The head of the U.N. atomic watchdog says conditions at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant are increasingly precarious and a safety zone around it
KYIV, Ukraine — The head of the U.N. atomic watchdog says conditions at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant are increasingly precarious and a safety zone around it needs to be established immediately to prevent a nuclear accident.
Rafael Mariano Grossi, the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said in a statement Friday that there is little likelihood of re-establishing reliable offsite power lines to the plant and its Ukrainian operator is considering shutting down the only remaining operating reactor.
This would leave the plant fully reliant on emergency diesel generators to provide electricity for vital nuclear safety functions.
“This is an unsustainable situation and is becoming increasingly precarious,” Grossi said.
“The power plant has no offsite power. And we have seen that once infrastructure is repaired, it is damaged once again,” he said. “This is completely unacceptable. It cannot stand.”
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