{"id":3093,"date":"2024-11-20T17:22:21","date_gmt":"2024-11-20T15:22:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/ukraine\/?p=3093"},"modified":"2025-12-09T01:26:40","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T23:26:40","slug":"greenpeace-demands-immediate-deployment-of-iaea-protection-mission-to-ukraine-to-avoid-nuclear-catastrophe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/ukraine\/en\/news\/3093\/greenpeace-demands-immediate-deployment-of-iaea-protection-mission-to-ukraine-to-avoid-nuclear-catastrophe\/","title":{"rendered":"Greenpeace demands immediate deployment of IAEA protection mission to Ukraine to avoid nuclear catastrophe"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Kyiv, 20.11.2024: The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) must immediately deploy a protection mission to Ukraine\u2019s critical electricity system as Russia attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure intensify. The nuclear crisis and Russian attacks will be discussed at the IAEA Board of Governors meeting on the 21st-22nd November in Vienna. Greenpeace Austria is calling on IAEA\u2019s Board members to put pressure on the IAEA secretariat to act immediately and effectively to prevent the danger of a nuclear catastrophe.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

Russia\u2019s recent attacks deliberately targeted Ukraine\u2019s most important electrical substations, which are critical for the functioning of the country’s nuclear power plants. The cooling of highly radioactive nuclear fuel in the nine operating reactor cores and nine spent fuel in pools is dependent on stable electricity supply from the Ukrainian electricity grid. If external power is cut off due to, for example, further Russian attacks on substations, nuclear plants will be dependent on on-site emergency diesel generators and batteries. These can only be sustained for seven to ten days. In that time, grid connection needs to be restored or a nuclear catastrophe is a near certainty.

Shaun Burnie, nuclear expert from Greenpeace Ukraine states: \u201cThe entire safety program of Ukraine\u2019s nuclear reactor fleet \u2013 a total of 15 reactors and the electricity supply across the nation, is at a heightened risk of catastrophic failure. The IAEA, despite repeated warnings of planned Russian attacks against Ukraine\u2019s nuclear plants, have only visited electric substations twice in nearly three months.They need to make a full scale deployment of their personnel to electricity substations immediately and before it is too late\u201d.

The Russian foreign ministry warned the IAEA last week that they could expel their mission from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, which is occupied illegally by Russian armed forces. In Greenpeace opinion this is in an attempt by the Russian government to intimidate and pressurize the IAEA not to act against them – such as protecting Ukraine\u2019s electricity substations. The IAEA needs to stand up to Russian pressure and protect Europe from a potential nuclear disaster comparable to Fukushima in 2011, or even Chernobyl in 1986 with potentially huge radiation effects.<\/p>\n\n

Jan Vande Putte, nuclear expert from Greenpeace Belgium explains the danger of the situation: \u201cIn the event of a grid failure, Ukraine may not be able to restore grid connection for nuclear power plants for several weeks due to more and more damage to its electricity system. This would lead to a loss of cooling function at one or more plants which would inevitably lead to nuclear fuel melt and large scale radiological release. Potentially, this scenario could cascade across reactors at one site, and at multiple nuclear plants.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

Greenpeace has repeatedly been warning of an increasing chance of a nuclear crisis in Ukraine due to Russian attacks. In October 2024, the organization published an in-depth analysis<\/a> on the danger of the situation, calling for an immediate end to Russian attacks on Ukraine\u2019s electricity system and for the rapid and immediate deployment of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) personnel to nuclear critical substations. With the exception of one mission in late October, the IAEA has not taken any further measures.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cThe emerging nuclear crisis in Ukraine is unprecedented in the history of nuclear power. Commercial nuclear plants were never conceived to be operating in the middle of a full scale war. Russia is using these attacks as a strategic lever to defeat Ukraine, knowing that it risks causing a nuclear disaster. The IAEA has a perfect technical understanding of this threat level and remaining inactive at this critical moment would be culpable neglect from its side and inexcusable.\u201d, concludes Shaun Burnie. <\/p>\n\n

Further Information:<\/strong>
Greenpeace Analysis and Report on Risk of unprecedented nuclear disaster if Russia\u2019s attacks on Ukraine\u2019s electricity system continue https:\/\/greenpeace.at\/cee-press-hub\/iaea-to-step-up-inspections-in-ukraine-nuclear\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kyiv, 20.11.2024: The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) must immediately deploy a protection mission to Ukraine\u2019s critical electricity system as Russia attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure intensify. The nuclear crisis…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":3082,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"","p4_local_project":"","p4_basket_name":"Climate & Energy","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[113,111],"p4-page-type":[107,115],"class_list":["post-3093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nuclear","tag-113","tag-zaporizhzhia-en","p4-page-type-news","p4-page-type-115"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/ukraine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/ukraine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/ukraine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/ukraine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/ukraine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3093"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/ukraine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3093\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5032,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/ukraine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3093\/revisions\/5032"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/ukraine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/ukraine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/ukraine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/ukraine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3093"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/ukraine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=3093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}