Attacking reactor sites like playing with fire, says head of IAEA
The International Atomic Energy Agency said it has been informed by the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant that a drone struck a turbine building at the site on 30 May, causing a hole in its wall.
The agency’s director-general Rafael Grossi expressed “serious concern” about the incident.
“Attacking nuclear sites is like playing with fire,” Grossi said. He said the strike was a serious incident that endangered key nuclear safety principles.
“Attacks on nuclear sites are unacceptable and must stop in order to prevent the very real risk of a nuclear accident that would benefit no one,” Grossi said.
The IAEA said its team at Zaporizhzhia saw damage to the exterior of a turbine building on Sunday. During a site inspection, the team saw damage to a metal access hatch several levels up in the building, as well as a few pieces of debris and burned optical fibre remains on the ground.
The team’s observations are consistent with the impact of a drone, the IAEA said.
The IAEA has requested access to the inside of the building – which is immediately next to reactor Unit 6 – for further examination.
During the inspection on Sunday, the team was told to shelter after hearing the sound of drones nearby and gunfire to repel them. The team was still able to confirm with their measuring equipment that radiation levels at the site remain normal.
The IAEA said this would be the first drone attack within the Zaporizhzhia’s site perimeter since April 2024.
Russia’s state nuclear energy company Rosatom said on Saturday a Ukrainian drone had struck the plant, Europe’s largest, but had not caused damage to key equipment.
Rosatom’s head Alexei Likhachev called the incident “deliberate” and said it left a hole in the wall of a turbine hall. “This afternoon, a Ukrainian kamikaze combat drone struck the turbine hall building of Power Unit No. 6, resulting in a subsequent detonation,” Likhachev said in a statement.
The six-unit Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant was captured by Russia in March 2022 and remains close to the frontline in the south-eastern Ukrainian Zaporizhzhia region.
All six units at the station have been in cold shutdown since September 2022, but still require a constant supply of electricity to cool residual reactor core activity and spent fuel pools.
Kyiv Denies Russian Claims
Kyiv military have denied Russian claims as “yet another propaganda ploy”, saying its troops did not strike Unit 6 at the plant.
“Ukrainian servicemen act strictly within the international humanitarian law and are fully aware of the consequences of any actions targeting nuclear facilities,” the military said in a statement.
“At the relevant section of the frontline, there was no active fighting during the incident, and no weapons were used.”
The IAEA said on 28 May that the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant experienced an extended communication blackout amid reports of increased military activity nearby.
The plant had neither landline nor internet connection for approximately 12 hours on 27 May, in the longest such incident at the plant since the start of the military conflict. The cause of the outage was not immediately clear, but it coincided with reported attacks on the city of Enerhodar, where most plant staff live.
“It was yet another reminder of the constant challenges to maintaining nuclear safety and security and preventing an accident during the conflict, at the ZNPP as well as at Ukraine’s operating nuclear power plants and the Chornobyl site,” the IAEA said.
