UN nuclear watchdog calls for ‘security protection zone’ around Russia-controlled Zaporizhzhya power plant

There is an “urgent” need to create a “security protection zone” in the area controlled by Russia Zaporizhzhia power plant In Ukraine to prevent a nuclear disaster, the The International Atomic Energy Agency announced Tuesday.

The United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency warned that “the situation in Ukraine is unprecedented.” “This is the first time that a military conflict has occurred amid the facilities of a large and well-established nuclear power programme,” it said in a report.

A nuclear accident would be a disaster not only for Ukraine, but also for countries “located outside its borders”.

Rescuers from the Ukrainian Emergencies Ministry on exercise in Zaporizhia on August 17, in case of a possible nuclear accident at the nuclear power plant.Dimitar Delkov/AFP via Getty Images

“The International Atomic Energy Agency is ready to start immediately consultations that will lead to the urgent establishment of the nuclear safety and security protection zone,” the International Atomic Energy Agency said.

The dire warning from the Vienna-based organization that was not given to exaggeration came just 24 hours after the Ukrainian energy company that runs the Zaporizhzhya complex declared that The last line connecting the power plant to the Ukrainian electric grid Service was cut off after days of “heavy bombardment”.

The other three lines are down Earlier in the war.

“We are playing with fire, and something very catastrophic could happen,” Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, warned the United Nations Security Council, days after leading an inspection visit to the station.

At the Security Council meeting, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres demanded that Russian and Ukrainian forces cease all military activities around the plant and agree on a “demilitarized perimeter”.

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“The current situation is unsustainable and the best measure to ensure the safety and security of the Ukrainian nuclear facilities and its people is for this armed conflict to end now,” the IAEA report said.

“The world is once again on the brink of nuclear disaster,” Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushenko Said previously on Facebook.

The Zaporizhzhia plant in the southeastern Ukrainian town of Enerhodar began operating in the 1980s when the country was part of the then-Soviet Union and provided up to 20% of Ukraine’s post-independence power. Its six reactors generate more power than any such facility in the United States.

But it was captured in the early days of the Russian invasion, which began in February.

IAEA inspectors arrived at the Zaporizhia plant on September 1, and have since been assessing damage at the site, evaluating safety and security systems, and interviewing Ukrainian staff who kept the facility operating.

Before the war, the Ukrainian plant employed 11,000 employees. It was not immediately clear how many were left. But the IAEA left two inspectors at the station.

“The IAEA remains deeply concerned about the situation in the ZNPP – and this has not changed,” the monitoring group said in its report, referring to the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant. “The Seven Pillars have all been hacked into the site.”

Rafael Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency
International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Rafael Grossi spoke to the media at Vienna International Airport in Schwechat, Austria, on Friday upon his return from an inspection of the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant.Heinz Peter Bader / Getty Images

The seven columns indicate The Seven Core Nuclear Safety Standards of the International Atomic Energy Agencythe first of which states: “The physical integrity of the installations—whether they are reactors, fuel pools, or radioactive waste stores—must be maintained.”

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The West accused Russia of increasing the risk of a nuclear catastrophe by using the plant as a “shield” where soldiers and weapons are stationed – and launching attacks on other Ukrainian targets from the site.

Russia denied the accusations, accusing Ukraine of repeatedly attacking the plant.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has warned that the consequences of the collapse caused by the war at the plant will be far-reaching and “more terrible” than those caused by the 1986 disaster at the plant. Chernobyl nuclear power plant Near the city of Pripyat in northern Ukraine.

This disaster caused the evacuation of more than 100,000 people living near the plant and resulted in a radioactive cloud that drifted across much of Europe and was blamed for high rates of cancer – especially in children – in both Ukraine and neighboring Belarus.

Zaporizhzhia factory is Almost twice the size of ChernobylAlthough its reactors are more modern, experts told NBC News earlier.

News agency Contributed.

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