At a special session of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna today, twelve countries warned that the risk of a nuclear accident in Ukraine is increasing, DPA reported, quoted by BTA.
The daily Russian attacks on the country's energy infrastructure not only expose millions of Ukrainians to the winter cold, “but this also negatively affects nuclear security in Ukraine and brings the possibility of a nuclear accident extremely close to reality“, said a joint statement by these countries.
The attacks on substations and the increasingly serious damage to the power grid are considered to pose a threat to nuclear security, the statement said. The 12 countries say that reliable access to electricity is essential for the safe operation of nuclear power plants.
The group of countries, which includes Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania and the United Kingdom, called the meeting of the IAEA's board of governors. The United States did not join the initiative.
Although nuclear power plants produce electricity, they use electricity from external sources to cool the radioactive materials in the facilities, DPA reports. In emergencies, generators are used. In the event of a cooling system failure and a bad combination of circumstances, there is a risk of a nuclear accident.
US President Donald Trump said yesterday that he had asked his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to refrain from striking cities and energy facilities in Ukraine for a week due to “record cold”, but Moscow has not yet confirmed that it will adhere to the limited ceasefire.