“The U.N. nuclear chief warned that Europe’s largest nuclear power plant in Ukraine ‘is completely out of control’ and issued an urgent plea to Russia and Ukraine to quickly allow experts to visit the sprawling complex to stabilize the situation and avoid a nuclear accident.
Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said in an interview Tuesday with The Associated Press that the situation is getting more perilous every day at the Zaporizhzhia plant in the southeastern city of Enerhodar, which Russian troops seized in early March.
“’Every principle of nuclear safety has been violated’ at the plant, he said. ‘What is at stake is extremely serious and extremely grave and dangerous.’
“The Russian capture of Zaporizhzhia renewed fears that the largest of Ukraine’s 15 nuclear reactors could be damaged, setting off another emergency like the 1986 Chernobyl accident, the world’s worst nuclear disaster, which happened about 110 kilometers (65 miles) north of the capital Kyiv.
“The IAEA chief said he and his team need protection to get to the plant and the urgent cooperation of Russia and Ukraine: ‘The IAEA, by its presence, will be a deterrent to any act of violence against this nuclear power plant,’ Grossi said. ‘So I’m pleading as an international civil servant, as the head of an international organization, I’m pleading to both sides to let this mission proceed.’”
