The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) was damaged after being shelled, increasing fears that a catastrophic release of radiation is “dangerously close”.
The power station is the biggest nuclear facility in Europe and has been under Russian control since March 2022.
Ukraine claims the Russians are using the power plant as cover to launch drone and artillery attacks on their positions on the opposite bank of the Dnipro.
The ZPP has repeatedly come under attack, prompting fears that a nuclear disaster is imminent.
In the latest incident, artillery shelling destroyed an external radiation monitoring station on Monday.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was informed that the plant lost connection to the monitoring station, located 16 kilometres southwest of the main facility on June 24.
The loss of the station further limits the plant’s external capacity to detect radiation release in an emergency.
The NPP press service said is a statement: “The radiation control post in Velikaya Znamenka was completely destroyed as a result of artillery shelling by the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
“NPP specialists carried out a number of compensatory measures to control the radiation situation in the area where the plant is located.”
IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said radiation monitoring equipment was an essential part of nuclear safety around the world.
“These systems are important for continuously monitoring radiation levels and, in the case of an emergency, for quickly assessing the ongoing and potential radiological impact and what protective actions may need to be taken,” he added.
Inspectors from the agency have not been able to assess the damage in person, due to ongoing fighting in the area.
Multiple radiation monitoring stations within 30 kilometres of the ZNPP have suffered damage and been out of action for varying periods of time. Four stations out of a pre-war 14 are currently not in service.
“The loss of one radiation monitoring station does not have a direct impact on safety at the ZNPP, but it forms part of a continuous erosion of a range of safety measures during the war that remains a deep source of concern,” Mr Grossi said.
In April, the IAEA boss said a nuclear accident was “dangerously close” after the plant came under attack for the first time since November 2022.
He told a session of the United Nations Security Council: “Let me put it plainly — two years of war are weighing heavily on nuclear safety at Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.
“These reckless attacks must cease immediately.”
