Strike conducted near Ukraine nuclear plant, UN watchdog says

The International Atomic Energy Agency on Tuesday said a drone strike hit a training facility near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. IAEA team members on the ground reported an explosion in connection with the strike. The strike did not damage the facility or create the risk of a nuclear threat, but IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi said it highlighted the current risk to the facility.

Didn’t something like this happen just the other day? The IAEA reported scorch marks on Sunday on a nuclear reactor dome after a drone strike at the facility—the first time the site was directly targeted since November 2022. Russia blamed Ukraine for the attack, and IAEA personnel on the ground said Russian soldiers at the facility shot at incoming drones. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday accused Russia of conducting airstrikes in several areas of Ukraine, including the Zaporizhzhia region.

What happens if a strike damages one of the reactors? A cruise missile or similar strike is unlikely to cause serious damage to the reactor core of the facility, according to a report last year by the Scientists for Global Responsibility. However, a cruise missile or similar strike could damage parts of the facility such as spent fuel containers which could spread radioactive material across parts of the facility and make them unsafe to manage. That, in turn, could lead to a core failure, or nuclear meltdown, at the facility.

Just last week, the Zaporizhzhia plant lost its last backup power line to off-site energy sources used for cooling the reactors and keeping them stable, according to a statement by the IAEA. The facility now has only one power line for obtaining the off-site energy necessary to keep the reactors cool. The IAEA said it did not know how or why the plant lost the power line, but its loss followed reports of increased military activity in the area.

Dig deeper: Read Jordan J. Ballor’s column in WORLD Opinions about how if the world wants to shift away from fossil fuels, it has little choice but to switch to nuclear power.