The fear of atomic radiation is growing in Ukraine
The UAE mission will go to the Zaporizhia NPP
UNof the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) mission at the end of the week of Ukraine will go to the occupied Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (NPP).
The reason is that fierce fighting is currently taking place in the area where the NPP is located.
This has reportedly raised fears of a possible radiation leak.
Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), wrote on Twitter on August 29 that a group of IEA experts has left for the NPP.
“of Ukraine and to protect the safety of Europe’s largest nuclear facility. This week we are going to Zaporozhye NPP. I am proud to lead the mission,” Rafael Grossi wrote in his tweet.
Last week Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky Due to Russia’s shelling of the region, the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant was cut off for hours, and the world narrowly escaped a radiation disaster, he announced.
Zelensky said that Russian fire cut off the power grid of the reactor complex, the largest facility in Europe. Moreover, it caused fires in the ash pits of a nearby coal power plant.
Moscow denied what was said.
To the occupied town of Enerhodar near the plant Russia appointed by the official Vladimir Rogov supervises.
In the fire that happened in the forest near him Ukraine blamed the armed forces.
He said that the cities in the region lost electricity for several hours.
“This was caused by the cutting of power lines from the Zaporizhia NPP as a result of provocations by Zelensky’s fighters,” Rogov wrote in “Telegram”.
Russia started an armed intervention in Ukraine at the end of February.
He took over the plant in March and has been controlling it ever since.
A small number of Ukrainian technicians remain and work at the plant.
It has been a long time since the United Nations (UN) was trying to gain access to the plant. Even UN called for the demilitarization of the area.
UAE experts will assess the physical damage to the station, determine the functionality of the security systems, look at the working conditions of the staff, and carry out emergency security activities, the agency notes.
Neither Grossi nor the agency said exactly when the mission would arrive in Zaporozhye.
of Ukraine the Ministry of Energy said that it would not comment on the UAE mission for “security reasons”.
UN and Ukraine So that the NPP does not become a target of conflict military called for the removal of equipment and staff from there.
Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of shelling the area, raising fears of a nuclear disaster.
Nuclear experts have warned of the risk of damaging the plant’s spent fuel pools or its reactors.
An outage of the power needed to cool the pools can cause a catastrophic spill.
National safety expert Paul Bracken, a professor at the Yale School of Management, said the possibility that artillery shells or rockets could pierce the reactor walls was a concern.
According to him, radiation could potentially be spread over a large area, as was the case with the Chernobyl reactor accident in 1986.
Bracken said any failure at the Zaporizhia plant could kill hundreds or thousands of people and cause environmental damage over a larger area, reaching as far as Europe.