UN Pushes Deal to Avert Disaster at Ukraine Nuclear Plant

The head of the United Nations' atomic energy agency unveiled a new plan to keep Europe’s biggest nuclear reactor from falling victim to Russia’s war in Ukraine, but the proposed measures drew objections from both sides.

Speaking to the U.N. Security Council Tuesday, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Grossi unveiled five rules that – if Russia and Ukraine were to follow them – would keep the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant from a combat-inflicted disaster as fighting heats up eastern Ukraine.

“The nuclear safety and security situation at the Zaporizhzhya NPP, in particular, continues to be extremely fragile and dangerous,” Grossi told the council. “Military activities continue in the region and may well increase very considerably in the near future.”

Grossi’s plan would ban attacks on the power plant, its infrastructure and personnel; ban attacks launched from the facility itself; forbid the storage of heavy weapons at the plant; and guarantee that the plant's off-site power – the electricity that runs the reactor’s pumps and other equipment “should not be at risk.” Other provisions call for the protection of plant facilities from sabotage.

Russian and Ukrainian diplomats responded with skepticism - for different reasons. 

"Mr. Grossi's proposals to ensure the security of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant are in line with the measures that we've already been implementing for a long time," Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said, according to Reuters.

Ukraine’s U.N. Ambassador, Sergiy Kyslytsya, said Grossi’s rules were insufficient and "must be complemented with the demand of full demilitarization and de-occupation of the station."

The plant's safety has become even more perilous as Ukraine prepares for an expected counteroffensive to reclaim Russian-occupied territory.

Russia captured the plant, which supplied electricity to Europe, in the first week of its February 2022 invasion. On March 4 of that year, a fire broke out, allegedly due to inaccurately-fired Russian rockets, and was brought under control only after several tense hours. The Ukrainian nuclear power agency later accused Russian forces of trying to torture plant workers into falsely confessing that they had caused the fire through sabotage. 

This week an unnamed Zaporizhzhia worker, quoted by Sky News, said Russian forces had used the plant as a shield.

"Ukrainian armed forces will not shell the station," the worker said. "That's why (the Russians) are multiplying the numbers of troops and vehicles here, because if they did it in another place they would definitely get shelled." He said the Russians had recently doubled their troop strength in the area of the plant, "which means they are definitely preparing for the counteroffensive."

In his remarks to the U.N. Tuesday, Grossi cited 7 occasions when the plant lost all its off-site power and had to rely on emergency diesel generators. Grossi called those generators "the last line of defense against a nuclear accident, to provide essential cooling of the reactor and spent fuel.” He said the last such incident, the seventh, "occurred just one week ago.”