Zaporizhia NPP: Europe now facing nuclear disaster as Russia opts for new plot

NAEC Energoatom calls on the UN, IAEA, and the international community to take all possible measures to send a security mission to the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant to ensure its further demilitarization and withdrawal of Russian troops from the facility and surrounding area.

This was reported by the nuclear operator’s press service, Ukrinform saw.

"Energoatom once again calls on the UN, IAEA, and the entire international community to take all possible measures to send a security mission to the Zaporizhia NPP, followed by the site’s demilitarization and withdrawal of armed Russian troops from the station and the entire surrounding area, including from the town of Enerhodar. Only this will now be able to guarantee safety at the ZNPP and make a global nuclear and radiation disaster impossible," the statement reads.

It is noted that the acts of nuclear terrorism at the Zaporizhia NPP, which is being shelled by Russian artillery, are aimed at destroying the station's infrastructure, damaging power lines that supply electricity to the Ukrainian power system, including to de-energize the country’s south.

"The shelling of the station is likely to continue. Coordinated actions of security organizations, including the UN, IAEA, and WANO, as well as constant pressure on Russia from the international community to withdraw their military from Europe's largest nuclear facility and its complete demilitarization can prevent this. It is necessary to return the ZNPP to the status of a peaceful civilian object, which it was before the Russian invasion," Energoatom emphasizes.

The company is confident that the Russian Federation could proceed with its plan to turn the ZNPP into a military base for nuclear terrorists. This, in particular, is facilitated by the latest actions by Rosatom officials, present at the plant, who coordinate the effort to cut off the ZNPP from Ukraine’s energy system through artillery shelling of NPP communication lines.

In addition to the destruction of NPP’s infrastructure, the NAEC specifies, the plan also includes the following blackout at the station, when diesel generators will engage at all power units to ensure cooling of the nuclear fuel contained in reactors, as well as spent nuclear fuel storage pools at each power unit.

"The situation has become greatly complicated after the invaders deployed their military equipment with weapons and explosives in the machine rooms of power units 1 and 2, which equals to the actual mining of power units hoolding two nuclear reactors of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant. Soon, this may lead to a nuclear and radiation disaster, the consequences of which will hit not only Ukraine but also the whole of Europe," Energoatom concluded.

As reported, on August 5, Russian invaders shelled the territory of the Zaporizhia NPP as three blasts were recorded near the industrial site. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, commenting on the situation at the ZNPP, said that "any shelling of nuclear facilities is an audacious act of terror."