Kurchatov, Russia: The head of the United Nations Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, arrived at the Kursk nuclear power plant on Tuesday. According to Moscow, the plant has been repeatedly attacked by Ukrainian forces, which are only 40 kilometers away, after they seized a piece of Russian territory.
The safety of the nuclear power plants has been repeatedly compromised in the course of the Ukraine war, which began in February 2022 with the deployment of thousands of Russian soldiers across the border into Ukraine.
Moscow and Kyiv have repeatedly blamed each other for drone and artillery attacks on the Russian-controlled Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine. However, the invasion of Russia by Ukrainian forces on August 6 has put the Kursk nuclear power plant – a key Soviet-era nuclear power plant – in the spotlight.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday accused Ukraine of attempting to attack the Kursk nuclear power plant. The plant has four RBMK-1000 reactors moderated with Soviet graphite. These reactors are the same type as the reactors at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which was the scene of the world’s worst nuclear disaster for the civilian population in 1986.
A response from Ukraine to the allegations that it attacked the facility is still pending.
Grossi, who has repeatedly warned of a nuclear disaster if attacks on nuclear power plants continue, was seen on Russian state television speaking to Russian nuclear officials at the plant.
Before his trip, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had stated that the only way to assess the safety of the power plant and confirm the information received was to visit the site, which belongs to the Russian state nuclear company Rosatom.
“The safety of nuclear facilities must not be compromised under any circumstances,” said Grossi. “The safety of all nuclear power plants is of central and fundamental importance to the IAEA.”
Foreign attack
Thousands of Ukrainian soldiers broke through the Russian border on August 6 and captured part of Russia’s western Kursk region, the largest foreign attack on sovereign Russian territory since World War II.
Russia says Ukraine has sent thousands of soldiers as well as sabotage units, drone swarms, heavy artillery, dozens of tanks and heavy Western weapons. Moscow announces that it will withdraw the Ukrainian soldiers.
Just 40 kilometers from the fighting, the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant is located next to the town of Kurchatov, which is named after the legendary Russian physicist Igor Kurchatov.
Of the four Soviet-era reactors at Kursk, two are shut down, but two – number 3 and number 4 – are in operation. Reactor number 4 was shut down for 59 days on August 25 to allow repairs to its cooling system.
Construction of the Kursk-2 nuclear power plant using fundamentally new WWER-510 reactors began in 2018. The two reactors are not yet in operation.
The IAEA said on August 22 that it had been informed by Russia that the remains of a drone had been found about 100 meters from the spent fuel storage facility at the Kursk nuclear power plant.
According to Russian monitoring stations, radiation levels in the region were normal.
Published 27 August 2024, 09:41 IS
