Russia Threatens to Close Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant If the Attack Continues

Russia Threatens to Close Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant If the Attack Continues

Moscow - Russia's Defense Ministry says the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine could be shut down if Kiev forces continue to shell the facility. Allegations that Ukraine denies.

In a briefing, the head of Russia's chemical and biological radioactive defense forces, Igor Kirillov, said that the plant's backup support system had been damaged by the shelling. Kirillov said that in the event of an accident at the plant, the radioactive material would cover Germany, Poland and Slovakia.

Meanwhile, Kiev denies attacking the nuclear power plant, which is Europe's largest and has been occupied by Russian troops since March. "I haven't seen any confirmed evidence of any shooting by the Ukrainian military at the plant itself," said Shaun Burnie, a nuclear specialist at Greenpeace East Asia who was in Ukraine last month to monitor the Chernobyl nuclear site.

Regarding Kirillov's statement that the factory backup support system was damaged by the shooting, Burnie also responded. Three of the plant's four transmission lines were reported to be 'dead' over the weekend, most likely due to an attack," he said. Burnie said the generator's diesel generators and back-up batteries remained insufficient to cool, not only the six reactors, but the large pool of radioactive spent fuel. "This is a very serious situation," he stressed.

According to Burnie, today's threat to close factories is in line with the view that Russia might try to connect factories to the grid in Crimea, occupied in 2014, and potentially to Russia. At its peak, the Zaporizhzhia plant alone supplied Ukraine with 10% of energy. "This is a strategic asset for the Russian military," Burnie said.

Burnie also said it was critical that trained local staff maintain their positions and be able to work safely at the nuclear site. While Russia has more than twice as many reactors as Ukraine, most are older models, meaning that their engineers don't have the expertise to run the newer technology in Zaporizhzhia, he said.

Local staff will also be needed in the event of regular flooding from the Dnieper River, which flows through the vicinity of the Zaporizhzhia plant and could damage the dam and reservoir that provides cooling water for the reactor. Burnie was especially worried after a recent visit to survey the formerly Russian army occupied Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the site of the world's worst nuclear disaster in 1986.

His team found a contaminated exclusion zone full of landmines that stopped effective monitoring of the area. In addition, vital monitoring equipment at the Chernobyl plant has been destroyed, vandalized, or stolen during the Russian military occupation.

Earlier, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged that all military activities near Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant be stopped immediately. Russia and Ukraine blame each other for the shooting at Europe's largest nuclear facility.

Guterres expressed deep concern about the ongoing situation in and around the nuclear plant in southern Ukraine. He also asked all troops and military equipment stationed there to be withdrawn.