A major U.S. industry group threw its weight last week behind a proposal to protect Ukraine’s nuclear power plants from military threat after a Russian assault at one such site put international regulators on alert.
The Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) “supports the creation of safe zones surrounding all nuclear power plants in Ukraine,” CEO Maria Korsnick said in an emailed statement Friday. “We urgently call for the cessation of violence at nuclear facilities,” she said.
NEI also supports a proposal from Rafael Grossi, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), to negotiate a framework between Russia and Ukraine to “uphold the principles of nuclear safety,” Korsnick said.
The industry group’s comments come as Russian forces as of Friday seized the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in eastern Ukraine as part of a full-scale invasion of the country that started in late February. Although fighting caused a fire in a training building nearby the six-reactor plant, no radiological releases occurred. Moscow is currently in control of the site.
In a Sunday report, the IAEA said that although Zaporizhzhia employees are currently operating the plant, management actions require approval from the stationed Russian commander and occupying forces have restricted communications access to the site.
Zaporizhzhia, located northwest of Mariupol along the Dnieper River, is also home to around 3,000 spent fuel rods kept in onsite dry storage. The plant’s six reactors were brought online between 1985 and 1995.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate on Monday reported that the “radiological situation” at a neutron source at the Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology in north-central Ukraine was “normal” after it “came under fire” by Russian military forces on Sunday. According to the inspectorate, personnel at the institute defueled the facility on Feb. 24, the day Russia’s 2022 military invasion of Ukraine began in earnest.
