The situation at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant is out of control, says the head of the IAEA

The UN’s top nuclear official warned that Europe’s largest nuclear power plant in Ukraine “is completely out of control” and made an urgent appeal to Russia and Ukraine to immediately allow experts to visit the sprawling complex to stabilize the situation to avoid a nuclear accident, as reported by the Associated Press.

Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said in an interview Tuesday with The Associated Press that the situation was becoming more dangerous every day at the Zaporizhzhia plant in the southeastern city of Enerhodar, which Russian troops seized in early March, a little after their invasion of Ukraine on February 24.

“Every principle of nuclear safety has been violated” at the plant, he said. “What is at stake is extremely serious, extremely difficult and dangerous.”

Grossi cited multiple security breaches at the plant, adding that it is located “in a place where military operations are underway,” near territory controlled by Russia.

There is no respect for the integrity of the factory, he added, noting the bombings at the beginning of the war when the complex was seized and the constant recriminations by Ukraine and Russia over attacks on Zaporizhia.

There is “a paradoxical situation” in which the plant is controlled by Russia but Ukrainian personnel continue to carry out their nuclear operations, leading to inevitable moments of friction and violence, he said. While the IAEA has some contacts with staff, these are “flawed” and “fragmented”, he said.

Grossi also stressed that the supply chain for equipment and parts has been disrupted, “so we’re not sure the factory is getting everything it needs.” The IAEA must also carry out very important inspections to ensure that nuclear material is protected, he said, stressing that “there is a lot of nuclear material out there that needs to be inspected”.

“When you put all of that together, you have a list of things that should never happen at any nuclear facility,” Grossi said. “And that’s why I’ve insisted from day one that we should be able to go there to do that safety assessment, do the repairs and help like we already did at Chernobyl.”

Russia’s seizure of the Zaporizhzhia complex has renewed fears that the largest of Ukraine’s 15 nuclear reactors could be destroyed, triggering a global disaster like the 1986 Chernobyl accident, which occurred about 110 kilometers (65 miles) to the north of the capital Kyiv.

Russian forces occupied the contaminated Chernobyl site soon after the invasion of Ukraine, but handed over control to the Ukrainians in late March. Grossi visited Chernobyl on April 27 and tweeted that the security level was “like a flashing ‘red light'”. However, he said today, the IAEA carried out “an assistance mission” to Chernobyl at the time that was “very, very successful so far”.

The IAEA should go to Zaporizhia, as it did to Chernobyl, to ascertain the facts of what is actually happening there, carry out repairs and inspections and “prevent a nuclear accident,” Grossi stressed.

The head of the IAEA said that he and his team needed protection to reach the factory and the urgent cooperation of Russia and Ukraine.

Each side wants this international mission to go from different locations, which is understandable in light of territorial integrity and political considerations, he said, but there is something more urgent and that is to get the IAEA team to Zaporizhia.

“The IAEA, by being there, will be a deterrent to any act of violence against that nuclear plant,” Grossi said. “So I’m asking as an international civil servant, as the head of an international organization, I’m asking both sides to let this mission go ahead.”