The future of atomic energy would be compromised if Ukraine were to face a major accident with any of its nuclear power plants, the United Nations’ nuclear chief said Tuesday.
Rafael Mariano Grossi, director general of U.N. nuclear watchdog the International Atomic Energy Agency, said authorities must do all they can to help ensure the safety of Ukraine’s nuclear power plants during its war against Russia or else risk the technology losing its “license” to be of service to society.
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“We need to avoid a major accident in Ukraine,” Grossi said in Washington, D.C., during a Nuclear Energy Institute-hosted event focused on the finance of nuclear projects.
“If we have a major accident in Ukraine, the societal license we need to do whatever we may be wanting to do will — and rightly so — be even more difficult to get,” he said.
Ukraine’s nuclear power sector is caught up in the middle of the Russian invasion, and its Zaporizhzhia plant, home to six reactors and the largest nuclear power station in Europe, has been of special focus for Grossi and other international authorities.
The plant has been exposed to both proximate and direct shelling during the war, raising fears about the prospect of another nuclear meltdown in the same country that suffered the Chernobyl disaster.
Fighting between forces at the plant ignited on March 4, a week after the war began, making Zaporizhzhia the first operating civil nuclear plant to come under armed attack, according to the World Nuclear Association.
Zaporizhzhia has lost external power on multiple occasions in recent months, requiring the ignition of emergency diesel generators to ensure safety functions, and Grossi’s IAEA has sent teams of inspectors to examine it and other plants throughout the war.
Most recently, Grossi met with Vladimir Putin on Oct. 11 to lobby for the establishment of a security protection zone around the Zaporizhzhia plant.
“We must do everything in our power to help ensure that a nuclear accident does not happen during this tragic conflict, as it could cause even more hardship and suffering in Ukraine and beyond,” Grossi said at the time.
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Maintaining and expanding their social license to operate is critical for the existing and advanced nuclear sectors, which many Western governments, including the Biden administration, see as integral to their strategies for reducing carbon emissions.
Congress has authorized billions in grant funding and other incentives over the past year to support the existing reactor fleet and to spur innovation for the next generation of advanced reactors.
