UNITED NATIONS, May 31. /TASS/. The nuclear safety and security situation at the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant (NPP) remains extremely fragile, Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi told the UN Security Council on Tuesday.
"The nuclear safety and security situation at the Zaporizhzhya NPP, in particular, continues to be extremely fragile and dangerous," he said.
Over the past 15 months, the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) was cut off from external power sources and had to switch to emergency diesel generators seven times, Grossi told the Security Council.
"There have been seven occasions when the site lost all off-site power and had to rely on emergency diesel generators, the last line of defence against a nuclear accident, to provide essential cooling of the reactor and spent fuel. The last one, the seventh, occurred just one week ago," he said, adding that the world is "fortunate that a nuclear accident has not yet happened," but "if this continues then once day our luck will run out."
A nuclear or radiological accident at the plant could have disastrous consequences for the people of Ukraine, for the people of Russia, as well as for neighboring states and beyond, the nuclear official continued.
"So we must all do everything in our power to minimize the chance that it does," Grossi said.
In his words, military activities continue in the region and may intensify very considerably in the near future. On top of that, the plant has been operating on significantly reduced staff, which is not sustainable even though the plant remains in temporary shutdown, he added.