The shelling of the temporarily occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (Zaporizhzhia NPP), which took place for the first time since 2022 in April 2024, brought the risk of a nuclear disaster very close.
This was stated by the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, at the meeting of the UN Security Council.
Grossi said the war in Ukraine is the first in history to be fought on the sites of a major nuclear power program. According to him, on April 7, the International Mission of Support and Assistance to the Zaporizhzhia NPP confirmed the first attacks since November 2022, aimed directly at the Zaporizhzhia NPP. The IAEA Director General noted that the station remains not under occupation but "under the operational control of russia."
"We are very close to a nuclear disaster. We must not allow complacency and let chance decide what happens next. We must do everything in our power today to minimize the risk of an accident," Grossi emphasized.
The IAEA director general emphasized that there was one direct hit on the top of the dome of the protective shell of the unit six reactor. Two other attacks were in close proximity to the main reactor housings and resulted in at least one casualty, Grossi said. He noted that the potential danger of a major nuclear accident remains very real due to impacts on the reactor's protective shell.
As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, on April 7, the IAEA informed that a drone detonated on the territory of the temporarily occupied Zaporizhzhia NPP.
On April 13, the russian occupiers announced a complete shutdown of the Zaporizhzhia NPP.
On April 14, the General Staff of the Armed Forces announced that russia was preparing to carry out a provocation at the Zaporizhzhia NPP under a false flag.
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