Nuclear safety experts warn that waging war in and around such facilities presents extreme risks.
Europe's largest nuclear power plant was hit by Russian shelling early Friday, sparking a fire and raising fears of a disaster that could affect all of central Europe for decades, like the 1986 Chernobyl meltdown.
"Only urgent action by Europe can stop the Russian troops. Do not allow the death of Europe from a catastrophe at a nuclear power station."After taking the strategic port city of Kherson, Russian forces moved into the territory near Zaporizhzhia and attacked the nearby city of Enerhodar to open a route to the plant late Thursday.
"All of the safety systems of the six reactors at the plant were not affected at all and there has been no release of radioactive material," he said. The reactors at the plant have thick concrete containment domes, which would have protected them from external fire from tanks and artillery, said Jon Wolfsthal, who served during the Obama administration as the senior director for arms control and nonproliferation at the National Security Council."We don't want our nuclear power plants to come under assault, to be on fire, and to not have first responders be able to access them," he said.
"The real concern is not a catastrophic explosion as happened at Chernobyl but damage to the cooling system which is required even when the reactor is shut down," he said in a statement."It was this type of damage that led to the Fukushima accident."Ukraine is heavily reliant on nuclear energy, with 15 reactors at four stations that provide about half the country's electricity.
In an appeal to the IAEA for help earlier this week, Ukrainian officials said that Chernobyl staff have been held by the Russian military without rotation and are exhausted.
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