The Zaporizhzhia plant occupies an extensive site on the Dnipro River. It has continued to operate at reduced capacity since Russian forces seized it in early March, with Ukrainian technicians remaining on the job.
On Sunday, Ukraine’s state energy company Energoatom said a worker was injured by Russian shelling around the plant on Saturday.
Energoatom claimed three radiation monitoring sensors were also damaged, saying “timely detection and response in the event of a worsening radioactivity situation or radiation leakage from spent nuclear fuel barrels is currently impossible.”
“This time a nuclear disaster was miraculously averted, but miracles can’t last forever,” the company added.
Speaking on Ukrainian television, Energoatom president Petro Kotin said a strike on Sunday was up to 20 meters away from the processed fuel storage area.
“If they had hit the containers with the processed fuel, it would have been a radioactive accident,” he said.
Kotin suggested that if one container is hit “it will be a local accident on the factory territory and nearby area. If it’s two (or) three containers — the affected area will increase.”
Kotin also said that during the bombing, communication lines between the nuclear plant, the hydroelectric plant and the Ukrainian energy system were broken.
“From now on NPP Zaporizhzhia (nuclear power plant) is connected to the energy system of Ukraine with only one communication line. If all lines are destroyed, the plant will be transferred to the so-called “black-out” mode, which means And this situation will it is too dangerous to keep the fuel in the nuclear reactors in a safe condition,” he said.
It was the second time in as many days that the factory had been hit. Ukraine and Russia have shared responsibility for both attacks.
Russian-backed authorities in the nearest town — Enerhodar — claimed a Ukrainian missile landed within 400 meters of one of the plant’s reactors. The town was captured by Russian forces at the same time as the power plant.
“Tonight, armed formations of Ukraine were hit with a Uragan 220mm rocket,” the local authority claimed, according to Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.
“Administrative buildings and the adjacent land of the dry barrel storage facility were damaged by the projectiles. It is important to note that the impact site of the warhead fragments and the rocket propulsion engine itself is no more than 400 meters from the active reactor.” authorities said.
CNN cannot verify the claims made by either side. The Russians are shelling the Ukrainian-controlled city of Nikopoli from positions around the plant.
Fears over the safety of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant have been growing since Russian forces seized the site, but reached a tipping point on Friday when shelling damaged a high-voltage power line and forced one of the plant’s reactors to shut down — despite the lack of radioactive leakage being detected.
After the attack, Energoatom said Russian shelling destroyed a nitrogen-oxygen station and combined utility building and that “there are still risks of hydrogen leakage and release of radioactive substances, and the risk of fire is also high.”
On Saturday, IAEA director-general Rafael Mariano Grossi said he was extremely concerned about the bombing “which highlights the real risk of a nuclear catastrophe that could threaten public health and the environment in Ukraine and beyond.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has accused Russia of using the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant to terrorize Europe, said on Sunday he had spoken with European Council President Charles Michel about the situation at the complex.
“Russian nuclear terror demands a stronger response from the international community – sanctions on the Russian nuclear industry and nuclear fuel,” Zelensky tweeted.
The IAEA has been trying to coordinate a mission of protection experts to visit the plant since it was seized by Russian forces. Yevhenii Tsymbaliuk, Ukraine’s ambassador to the IAEA in Vienna, warned of catastrophic consequences if anything happened to the plant during a press conference on Monday, saying it would not be “comparable even to Chernobyl or Fukushima.”
Tsymbaliuk said Ukraine would like to see a delegation of experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency and the United Nations visit the station to monitor its condition, but that Russia’s military actions in Ukraine make such a trip “impossible.” .
“Irresponsible violation of nuclear safety rules”
As Russia and Ukraine blame each other for recent rocket and missile attacks near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Energoatom President Kotin said Russian forces should be expelled from the plant and a demilitarized zone established on the plant’s grounds. He also repeated Ukraine’s claims that Russia had transferred weapons to the plant’s power plants. “There are 14 units of heavy military equipment in the first power unit. There are 6 vehicles in the second engine room and we do not know what is inside these vehicles. There is also heavy weaponry,” he said. He also claimed that Russian troops had taken over all shelters at the power plant and workers had nowhere to go when shelling occurred. Several Western and Ukrainian officials believe Russia is now using the giant nuclear facility as a bastion to shield its troops and launch attacks because they assume Kyiv will not fire back and risk a crisis. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused Moscow of using the plant to shield its forces, while Britain’s Ministry of Defense said in a recent security assessment that Russia’s actions at the complex were sabotaging the security of its operations. The Ukrainian mayor of Enerhodar, Dmytro Orlov, said in late July that Russian forces had been observed using heavy weaponry near the plant because “they know very well that the Ukrainian Armed Forces will not respond to these attacks, as they can damage the nuclear energy. plant.” Ukraine’s foreign ministry warned on Friday that further attacks on the plant could be catastrophic. “The potential consequences of hitting a functioning reactor are equivalent to using an atomic bomb,” the ministry said on Twitter.
