By Leila Sackur -
NBC News
The situation in the area near Europe's largest nuclear plant
"is becoming even more unpredictable and potentially dangerous
," said the head of the UN nuclear watchdog group.
Rafael Mariano Grossi, director general of the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said in a statement that he was "extremely concerned about the very real risk to nuclear security" facing the Zaporizhzhia plant, located in the southeastern region of Ukraine.
"We must act now to prevent
the threat of a severe nuclear accident
and the associated consequences for the population and the environment," he said.
Russian soldiers guard an area of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine on Tuesday.
May 2022.AP
He added that the Russian-occupied facility, which is twice the size of the plant that detonated at Chernobyl in 1986, "must be protected."
"
I am extremely concerned about the very real nuclear safety risk facing the plant.
We must act now to prevent the threat of a nuclear accident and the associated consequences for the population and the environment," he said.
The statement indicated that the IAEA has received information that residents of the town of Enerhodar, close to the facility and where most of the personnel working at the plant live, had begun to be evacuated and that the international organization "was monitoring the situation very closely for any potential impact on nuclear safety.
Rafael Mariano Grossi, director general of the UN International Atomic Energy Agency, speaks to the press in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, on Jan.
September 2022.AP
"IAEA experts on site continually hear shelling," the statement added.
Dmytro Orlov, the mayor of Enerhodar in exile, said in a Telegram post on Saturday that Russian forces were stoking
an atmosphere of "panic"
with recent announcements of evacuations.
"The first wave of evacuations started yesterday [Friday] morning, but it still can't be considered 'mass'. Some people who wanted to get out got on buses. Others got out in their own cars. Of course, the gas stations were They ran out of fuel. The ATMs do not work or do so with great restrictions, and there is nowhere to get money from," he explained.
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The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said in a Facebook statement that
residents were evacuated
to Berdiansk and Prymorsk, two nearby towns on the Azov coast that are also under Russian military occupation.
The statement added that "the evacuations are of people who have Russian passports. The first to be evacuated are those who accepted Russian citizenship in the first months of the occupation."
NBC News has not been able to independently corroborate those claims.
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Captured by Russia in the first days of the invasion,
the Zaporizhzhia complex
is still operated by Ukrainian technicians
.
The plant's six reactors generate more power than any nuclear plant in the United States.
There was growing international alarm after the site was attacked in August.
Russia and Ukraine blamed each other for the attacks in the vicinity of the plant.
Grossi visited Zaporizhzhia in March as part of an effort to get an agreement from both sides to protect the plant.
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The number of staff members at the plant has decreased in recent months, the IAEA said in a statement, though it quoted the site's director, Yuri Chernichuck, as saying that the working staff were not being evacuated and that everything was being done. what is necessary to protect the place.
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The United States has accused Russia
of failing to recognize the "serious radiological risk" at the plant.
The 1986 Chernobyl nuclear plant disaster near the northern Ukrainian city of Pripyat is considered the worst nuclear disaster in history.
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The event
required the evacuation of more than 100,000 people
living within a 19-mile radius.
The resulting radiation was detected throughout Europe.
Officially, fewer than 50 people died as a direct result of the Chernobyl disaster, a figure strongly contradicted by scientists and environmental groups.
Ukrainian politicians have speculated that
up to three million people could be killed
and up to 51 million affected by radiation if a serious incident occurs at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant.
