A nuclear power plant in western Russia where fierce fighting has taken place is at risk of collapse, especially since the site lacks a protective dome that could protect it from missiles, drones and artillery.
The director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, on Tuesday (27/8) visited the Kursk nuclear power plant outside the city of Kurchatov in Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukrainian troops crossed the border three weeks ago and Russia is fighting to dislodge them.
“The danger or possibility of a nuclear accident is near here,” Grossi said, as reported by Al Jazeera, Wednesday (28/8).
Grossi explained that RBMK-type facilities do not have containment domes and protective structures like modern nuclear power plants. This means that the reactor core containing nuclear material is only protected by a regular roof. This makes it very vulnerable and at risk, for example from artillery, drone or missile attacks.
“So this is why we believe that a nuclear power plant of this type so close to a point of contact or a military front is a very serious fact that we take very seriously,” he said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin last week accused Ukraine of trying to attack the Kursk plant. Ukraine has not responded to allegations that it attacked the facility. “I was informed about the drone impact. I was shown some of its remains and signs of impact,” Grossi said, without saying who was responsible.
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Grossi stressed that the purpose of his visit was to draw world attention to the situation. Basically, nuclear power plants should not be attacked in any way. The IAEA has repeatedly warned of the dangers of fighting around nuclear plants since Russia’s full-scale military offensive in Ukraine began in February 2022.
Defence analyst Pavel Felgenhauer told Al Jazeera that continued attacks near the Kursk nuclear plant could change the course of the war. “The front line is currently, far away, tens of kilometres from the Kursk nuclear power plant. It seems that Ukraine is not trying to reach it or attack it, but of course, it is a dangerous situation,” he said.
“The situation on the northern front in Kursk, in (neighboring) Belgorod, is not entirely in Russia’s favor. Ukraine has the initiative there. Russia has the initiative in the south (of Ukraine) in Donbas, so both sides support each other. There is still a possibility that Ukraine will try to expand its Kursk bridgehead and go with troops to Belgorod through the border,” he continued.
Al Jazeera’s Alex Gatopoulos, reporting from Kyiv, said Russia knew it had to take Pokrovsk in the Donbas region because it was the absolute prize in Donetsk Oblast and was a part of the country that pro-Moscow separatists had controlled since 2014. (I-2)
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