UN Atomic Agency Confirms ‘No Impact’ on Safety After Ukraine Nuclear Plant Fire

The logo of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is seen at its headquarters in Vienna on May 24, 2021. Lisi Niesner/Reuters

As Ukraine and Russia blame one another for a fire at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP), the U.N. agency that monitors nuclear energy stated that “no impact” on safety was reported.

In a statement posted late on Aug. 11, the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) wrote on social media that its experts “witnessed strong dark smoke coming from the ZNPP’s northern area following multiple explosions heard in the evening.”

The IAEA stated that its “team was told by ZNPP of an alleged drone attack today on one of the cooling towers located at the site.”

“No impact has been reported for nuclear safety,” the U.N. agency stated.

Reports sent to the IAEA indicated that, on Aug. 11, a drone allegedly struck the power plant, which is located in southeastern Ukraine and is considered the largest nuclear plant in Europe, the IAEA said in a longer statement on Aug. 11.

The damage that was done doesn’t “directly impact the safety of the six units in shutdown,” according to the statement. But the U.N. agency warned that a fire onsite or in the vicinity of the units “represents a risk of spreading the fire also to facilities essential for safety.”

“The plant confirmed to the Team that there is no risk of elevated radiation levels as there is no radioactive material in the vicinity of the alleged attack area,” the IAEA stated, noting that the U.N. team independently verified the radiation levels onsite and found they were not changed.

The report comes as both Ukrainian and Russian officials have blamed one another for the fire, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy saying in a post on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, that as long as “Russian terrorists” control the plant, “the situation is not and cannot be normal.”

“Since the first day of its seizure, Russia has been using the Zaporizhzhia NPP only to blackmail Ukraine, all of Europe, and the world,” he said.

However, the plant’s director, Yuriy Chernichuk, who was installed by the Russian government, said in a statement carried by state-run Ria Novosti that a Ukrainian drone carrying a flammable liquid struck the plant.

“[On Aug. 11, a] combat drone ... flew through the top into the cooling tower and detonated,” he said, according to a translation. “Judging by the speed with which the fire started, we can assume that there was something else there—bottles of gasoline or napalm because the fire broke out very quickly and spread over a large area.”

Rosatom, a Russian state atomic energy company, described the incident as an act of “nuclear terrorism,” via state-run media. The fire was extinguished by Russia’s emergency management agency, it stated.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, there have been concerns that fighting around the Zaporizhzhia plant, located on the Dnipro River about 30 miles southwest of the city of Zaporizhzhia, could lead to a nuclear disaster.

Since Russia took control of the plant, there have been calls for Moscow to return its ownership to Ukraine. Last month, the United Nations adopted a resolution to have Russia cede control “immediately” to Ukrainian authorities “to ensure its safety and security,” according to a July 11 statement.

A view of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant from the bank of Kakhovka Reservoir near Nikopol, Ukraine, on June 16, 2023. Alina Smutko/Reuters

The world’s worst nuclear disaster took place in 1986 in Chernobyl, Ukraine, while the country was under the control of the Soviet Union. At the time, the communist regime denied the disaster’s scale before it was forced to make evacuations of the area around the plant, which is still uninhabited to this day.

The nuclear plant fire came as Zelenskyy confirmed on Aug. 10 that Ukrainian forces are fighting inside Russia and as Moscow and independent monitors have stated that troops have penetrated inside the Russian territory of Kursk, located near the Russia–Ukraine border.

Although he did not specifically say Ukrainian forces were responsible for the Kursk attacks, Zelenskyy said in a nightly address that Kyiv forces are now attempting “to push the war out into the aggressor’s territory,” according to a transcript.

“Ukraine is proving that it really knows how to restore justice and guarantees exactly the kind of pressure that is needed ... pressure on the aggressor,” he said, referring to Russia.

The IAEA also sounded a separate alarm over the renewed fighting in Kursk, saying it is within close proximity to the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant in Russia.