Zaporizhzhia: Russia detonated explosives at damaged Ukrainian nuclear plant, IAEA told

The Russian military detonated unexploded munitions left at Europe’s largest nuclear plant, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has been told.

On Monday, Ukraine’s state nuclear operator, Energoatom, said that Russian forces “blew up part of the ammunition on the site of the Zaporizhzhia NPP [nuclear power plant] near the ruins of the training centre and power unit No 1”.

The following day, the IAEA cited Ukrainian regulators as saying that staff at Zaporizhzhya had “confirmed reports that the Russian military had detonated unexploded munitions left on the site following events on 4 March”.

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The attack 11 days ago in which Russian forces seized Zaporizhzhia – Ukraine’s largest nuclear facility – raised fears of a radiation leak, as intense shelling saw a blaze break out at a training building in the vicinity of one of the plant’s reactor units.

Washington’s ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told United Nations delegates the following day that, “by the grace of God”, the world had “narrowly averted a nuclear catastrophe” at the site.

While Russia is in control of the facility, Moscow’s atomic energy agency Rosatom said on Saturday that Zaporizhzhia is being run and managed by its Ukrainian staff, the RIA news agency reported.

But Ukraine’s communications centre claimed this week that staff had fled during the detonation of munitions, alleging that Russian forces “plan to continue carrying out explosions”.

And Energoatom, Ukraine’s nuclear operator, claimed on Monday that 11 representatives of Rosatom were present at the facility, saying on Telegram: “It is obvious that the detonation of ammunition on the site of the station is carried out with their direct participation.

“So it turns out that Rosatom is also involved in this terrorism.”

While the training facility was damaged on 4 March, IAEA director-general Raphael Mariano Grossi said that “all the safety systems of the six reactors at the plant were not affected at all”.

Multiple nuclear experts also said that the shelling had been unlikely to trigger a Chernobyl-style nuclear disaster, while there is not known to have been any change in radiation levels at the site.

The IAEA, which reports to the United Nations, also announced on Tuesday that it had been informed by Ukrainian regulators that the Chernobyl nuclear plant had been re-connected to the national electricity grid – and no longer relied on emergency diesel generators for power.

The site of the world’s worst nuclear accident lost all off-site power last Wednesday and was forced to resort to diesel fuel for back-up electricity, but over the weekend Ukrainian specialist teams succeeded managed to repair one of two damaged lines linking the plant to the power network, the IAEA said.

But the agency warned that the site’s 211 technical personnel and guards have not been able to rotate since the day before the Russian forces entered the area, in effect living there for the past three weeks.

Mr Grossi said they were working “under enormous stress without the necessary rest”, with the Ukrainian regulator saying there was no information whether and when a shift change would be possible.

It added that the Ukrainian regulator had said “for the first time today” that information it received regarding Chernobyl and Zaporizhzhya was “controlled by the Russian military forces” and therefore it could not “always provide detailed answers to all’ of the IAEA’s questions”.

The challenging staffing situation and now-addressed power cuts at Chernobyl underscore the urgency of agreeing and implementing an IAEA initiative aimed at ensuring the safety and security of Ukraine’s nuclear facilities, Mr Grossi said.