Moscow, June 1 (EFE).- Any explosion at the nuclear plant at Zaporizhzhia, under Russian control since 2022, could trigger a nuclear accident, warned Alexey Likhachev, director general of Russia’s nuclear agency Rosatom, on Monday following recent attacks on the facility.
In an interview with Russian public television, he said that any explosion, any fire, meant the guaranteed loss of both the nuclear reactor’s electrical supply and cooling system, thereby setting the stage for a nuclear accident.
He added that a deliberate attack on Saturday on the turbine building of unit number 6 at the nuclear plant, which Moscow attributes to a Ukrainian drone, could have dangerous consequences.
Rosatom specialists and Russian military personnel have asserted that the attack, which didn’t damage the main equipment but caused a hole in the wall of the turbine building, was not accidental.
On Sunday, the Ukrainian foreign minister «firmly rejected» Russia’s accusations about the attack, describing them as another attempt to discredit Ukraine and conceal its own criminal acts.
Experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspected Zaporizhzhia power plant’s turbine hall on Sunday and reported having observed damage to an access hatch located on one of the building’s upper floors, concluding that the team’s observations were consistent with a drone attack.
Rosatom’s head said that he will hold a conversation on Monday with IAEA’s Director-General Rafael Grossi, to address the situation and make an appeal to European leaders.
Likhache stressed that radiation knew no borders and by playing with fire and allowing tensions to escalate around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, European leaders were putting their own countries, cities, and territories directly at risk.
He argued that if the reactor was destroyed by missiles, there would be an explosion and a leak of (radioactive) materials over many kilometers, warning that the around 2,600 tons of used nuclear fuel outside the reactor could disperse, putting the territories of Ukraine and neighboring Western states at serious risk. EFE
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