Common sense dictates: no, it’s not a smart idea to store bombs in or around a nuclear power plant. And yet, according to a recent complaint filed through the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Russia has done just that.
According to a Reuters report, the U. N. nuclear watchdog said on Monday that, for the second month in a row, it had discovered that antipersonnel mines inside the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Ukraine were a safety check. The latest warning comes just weeks after Ukraine accused Russia of planting bombs on the roof of the facility.
The plant, Europe’s largest nuclear plant, has been controlled by Russian forces for more than a year, and last month IAEA officials found explosives in and around the plant. Now, according to the IAEA, Russia blames the decision to suspend the bombs. in position at the plant to a “military resolution”. Rest assured, the IAEA is very pleased with this.
“As I have reported in the past, the IAEA has been informed of the past location of mines outside the perimeter of the site and also at specific locations within the site,” IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said on Monday. The team reported this plant-specific discovery and were told it was an army resolution and in a domain controlled through the military. “
To be clear, the IAEA complaint states that if the mines were to explode, they would most likely not damage the site’s safety systems. Still, Grossi said, even if the bombs never cause physical harm, the mental strain that the presence of the explosives imposes on the plant’s workers — which, operating an occupied nuclear power plant and an ongoing invasion, is already hard enough because it is — is a violation of protection rules in and of itself.
“The presence of such explosives at the site,” Grossi added in his statement, “is incompatible with the IAEA’s protection criteria and nuclear safety standards and creates additional mental strain for the plant’s workers, even though the IAEA’s initial assessment, based on its own observations and those of the plant: “To be clear, any detonation of these mines is not worth damaging the nuclear safety and security systems at the site. “
Regardless, while all the U. N. watchdog can do at the moment is register complaints, Grossi says the IAEA will continue to monitor the facility.
“The team,” he added, “will be their interaction with the plant. “
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