A Ukrainian Emergency Ministry rescuer attends an exercise in the city of Zaporizhzhia on August 17, 2022, in case of a possible nuclear incident at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant located near the city. - Ukraine remains deeply scarred by the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe, when a Soviet-era reactor exploded and streamed radiation into the atmosphere in the country's north. The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine was occupied in the early days of the war and it has remained in Russian hands ever since.
A member of the Ukrainian Emergency Ministry's rescue crew attends an exercise in the city of Zaporizhzhia on Aug. 17, in case of a possible nuclear incident at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Today UN nuclear inspectors are headed there to inspect the site. They are expected to arrive by tomorrow morning, according to Russian reports. The nuclear plant is currently controlled by Russian troops and operated by Ukrainian workers. It has been hit by shelling in recent weeks.
and at the United NationsThe United Nations remains gravely concerned about the dangerous situation in and around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine, Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs Rosemary DiCarlo told the Security Council today in a meeting requested by the Russian Federation and marked by emphatic calls to cease all military activities at the site.
“The Secretary-General has appealed to all concerned to exercise common sense and reason and to refrain from undertaking any actions that might endanger the physical integrity, safety or security of the nuclear plant — Europe's largest,” Ms. DiCarlo said. Voicing regret at near daily reports of alarming incidents involving the plant, she said preparations for an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) mission to carry out essential safety, security and safeguards activities at the site are proceeding and the Agency is in active consultations with all parties.
The United Nations has the logistics and security capacity in Ukraine to support any IAEA mission to the plant from Kyiv, provided Ukraine and the Russian Federation agree, she pointed out, calling for the mission’s immediate, secure and unfettered access to the site. “Agreement is urgently needed to re-establish Zaporizhzhia as purely civilian infrastructure and to ensure the safety of the area,” she said, warning that a nuclear incident in Zaporizhzhia, or any other nuclear facilities in Ukraine, would have catastrophic consequences not only for the immediate vicinity but for the region and beyond.