Following the shelling of a Ukrainian power facility, there are concerns for the country's nuclear safety

Following the shelling of a Ukrainian power facility, there are concerns for the country's nuclear safety

Updated on August 06, 2022 22:26 PM by Ava Sara

Ukrainian officials and international scientists

Ukrainian officials and international scientists have been warning for months of the risk that warfare poses to a huge nuclear power station on the banks of Dnipro River in southern Ukraine. Earlier this week, the world nuclear watchdog said the situation was growing increasingly serious. Then, on Friday, explosions erupted at Europe's largest nuclear power plant, Zaporizhzhia, reigniting worries of an impending catastrophe.

Moscow and Kyiv

Moscow and Kyiv have accused each other of bombarding the factory, which was taken seized by Russian forces in early March, along with the town of Enerhodar, where the complex is located. In a statement, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of being behind the incident, calling it a "brazen crime" and a "act of terror." "Today, the occupiers created another incredibly perilous situation for everyone in Europe," he stated in his nightly speech on Friday.

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Claims of Russian Defense Ministry

In response, the Russian Defense Ministry claimed that the Ukrainians had carried out three artillery strikes on the plant and its environs. The ministry noted that the generating capacity of one unit of the facility had been lowered, and electricity supply to another cut. Ukraine's state-run nuclear power operator, Energoatom, accused Russian forces of bombing Zaporizhzhia plant and utilising the complex as a staging ground for targeting surrounding targets, including numerous in the seized city of Enerhodar and the nearby Ukrainian-controlled city of Nikopol.

Violent fighting first broke out near the plant

When violent fighting first broke out near the plant in the early days of the war, it generated worries of a nuclear disaster and elicited condemnations from the world community. Russian troops ordered its management to work "at gunpoint" after capturing the plant on March 5, according to Ukrainian nuclear officials. A week later, the Kremlin deployed officials and technicians from Russia's federal nuclear agency to help execute repairs and operate the facility.

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Ukrainian and Russian workers

Ukrainian and Russian workers have been working alongside each other since, and communication with the outside world has been infrequent. Energoatom said Friday that Russian shelling had landed in and around the nuclear site and damaged a water intake infrastructure, cutting power and water to parts of Enerhodar. Three impacts were recorded immediately at the site of the station," the Ukrainian agency reported, saying that one was "near one of the power units where the nuclear reactor is located."

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Energoatom

Media was unable to verify claims of damage at the plant, which occupies a wide site. Much of the recent Russian fire in the area has originated from near the plant and it is unknown if components of the nuclear site were hit accidently. Energoatom said on Saturday that the plant remained functioning and Ukrainian workers at the station continued to work to ensure radiation safety. Ukrainian prosecutors have begun an investigation into the event.

International Atomic Energy Agency

The exact danger posed by the blasts in and around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear reactor remains unclear. The president of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, said in an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday that the situation at the plant was "totally out of control." "Every fundamental of nuclear safety has been broken," he said, calling on Russia and Ukraine to allow specialists to visit the site. "What is at risk is exceedingly severe and extremely grave and hazardous."

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Is Russia now using the massive nuclear station

Other officials have been more reserved, referring to the fact that current nuclear energy installations are intended to resist terrorist assaults and natural calamities. Several Western and Ukrainian officials believe that Russia is now using the massive nuclear station as a fortress to defend their soldiers and stage attacks, because they assume Kyiv would not retaliate and risk a conflict. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday accused Moscow of exploiting the plant to protect its military, and Ukraine has warned that shelling at the complex could be disastrous.

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The conceivable effects of attacking an active reactor

"The conceivable effects of attacking an active reactor are similar to the use of an atomic bomb," Ukraine's foreign ministry stated Friday on Twitter. The United Kingdom has warned that the acts at the complex have undermined the safety of the plant's operations. "Russian forces have probably used the wider facility area, in particular the adjacent city of Enerhodar, to rest their forces, utilising the protected status of the nuclear power plant to reduce the risk to their equipment and personnel from overnight Ukrainian attacks," Britain's ministry of defence said Friday in an intelligence update on Twitter.

The Ukrainian mayor of Enerhodar, Dmytro Orlov

Earlier this month, the Ukrainian mayor of Enerhodar, Dmytro Orlov, said Russian forces had been seen employing heavy weaponry near the plant because "they know very well that the Ukrainian Armed Forces will not reply to these strikes because they can harm the nuclear power plant."

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