Russian nuclear plant at risk as war with Ukraine rages, UN watchdog warns
Al Jazeera
IAEA head Rafael Grossi says Kursk nuclear plant’s proximity to the fighting is ‘extremely serious’.
A nuclear plant located in western Russia where fighting is raging between Russian and Ukrainian forces is vulnerable to a serious accident because it lacks a protective dome that could shield it from missiles, drones and artillery, the head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog says.
Rafael Grossi, director general at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), on Tuesday visited the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant outside the town of Kurchatov in Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces broke across the border three weeks ago and Russia is battling to eject them.
“The danger or possibility of a nuclear accident has emerged near here,” Grossi told reporters.
Grossi said the RBMK-type facility – the same model as the Chornobyl plant in Ukraine, which witnessed the world’s worst civilian nuclear disaster in 1986 – lacks the containment dome and protective structure that is typical of modern nuclear power plants.
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