Their warning comes amid growing international concern about the vulnerability of Ukraine’s nuclear facilities which rely on a stable power grid to maintain critical safety systems. “The latest large-scale Russian missile attack on Ukraine’s electricity system has led to further significant damage to electric substations that are essential to the operation of Ukraine’s nuclear power
Read MoreZaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) – which is also Europe’s biggest nuclear energy facility – has been under Russian control since shortly after it launched a full-scale military campaign in February 2022. In recent days, an IAEA expert team crossed the frontline to replace colleagues at the Zaporizhzhya plant who have been monitoring nuclear safety
Read MoreMiroslav Jenča, Assistant Secretary-General at the UN Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, said that last month was particularly deadly for Ukrainian civilians, with at least 219 killed and more than 1,000 injured. Since 24 February 2022 – the date of Russia’s full-scale invasion, the UN human rights office, OHCHR, has documented 11,662 civilian killings
Read MoreRafael Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said the targeting marked a “major escalation” in the level of danger facing the power plant. It was the first time since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 that the ZNPP – Europe’s largest nuclear power plant – has been directly targeted.
Read MoreSince the outbreak of the conflict, tens of thousands have lost their lives, many more have been wounded, and millions displaced within Ukraine and outside its borders. “We must remember that behind every number lies a mother, a father, a child, a grandparent. To turn a blind eye would be an affront to the memory
Read More“While the reconnection of the back-up power line is positive, the plant’s external power situation remains highly vulnerable, underlining the precarious nuclear safety and security situation at the site,” Mr. Grossi said. Much needed back-up According to IAEA, the plant’s connection to the single remaining 330 kilovolt (kV) power line out of six that existed before
Read MoreIAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said on Friday in a statement, that a location near the town of Enerhodar, home of most of the plant’s staff, reportedly came under artillery fire earlier in the day, “in the latest incident indicating an increasingly tense military situation in the area.” Speculation of military activity The ZNPP,
Read MoreThis marked the seventh time that Europe’s largest nuclear power plant had been completely disconnected from the national electricity grid since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion 15 months ago, the agency said, noting that the facility was forced to run on emergency diesel generators once again. The plant’s only remaining external 750 kilovolt
Read MoreLooking back on two of the most difficult periods since the plant opened in 1977, Chernobyl employees shared their personal stories with UN News on the International Chernobyl Disaster Remembrance Day. Ground zero Evgeny Yashin was a 40-year-old chemist at the Chernobyl plant when the nuclear power reactor accident unfolded in April 1986, resulting in
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