(Bloomberg) -- Ukraine’s top energy official warned that further Russian airstrikes against the country’s energy grid could trigger an emergency at one of the three operating nuclear power plants still under Kyiv’s control.
Ukraine has thousands of electricity substations. But at stake are ten crucial nodes linked to nuclear power plants, whose destruction could plunge the country into darkness and provoke a radiological emergency, Ukraine’s Energy Minister German Galushchenko told Bloomberg News in an interview.
Russia’s barrages are pushing nuclear risks closer to Ukraine’s borders with the European Union, he add.
“They know exactly what they’re doing,” Galushchenko said Tuesday from the Ukrainian capital. “It’s not accidental that they are attacking substations critical for nuclear safety.”
Substations maintain stability by regulating high-voltage transmission on power grids. Unlike fossil fuel or renewable plants, nuclear generation needs constant flow of electricity to keep safety systems running. Without it, fuel inside a reactor’s core risks overheating, threatening an uncontrolled, dangerous release of radiation.
Underscoring the nuclear safety risk, the International Atomic Energy Agency last week took the unusual step of expanding its Ukraine monitoring mission to include power substations. IAEA inspectors are typically relegated to accounting for nuclear material, not overseeing sprawling national electricity grids.
“The first mission we expected this week,” Galushchenko said, noting he was present last week in Kyiv when Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy agreed with IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi to expand monitoring. The energy chief said that Kyiv had agreed to an extended IAEA monitoring mission.
Two years after the IAEA started an around the clock presence at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, the minister’s comments show how war is forcing the Vienna-based organization to expand its powers. The situation “remains precarious,” Grossi said Monday in a statement.
Russia has held up its role as a dominant player in the global nuclear industry as evidence it can avoid a nuclear incident and welcomed an IAEA team to discuss plant safety at a Sept. 6 meeting in Kaliningrad. It has blamed Kyiv for attempted sabotage and drone attacks.
Challenge to Defend
Compounding the Ukrainian government’s concerns is a lack of air defense systems.
Recent attacks caused blackouts in much of the country and interrupted power supplies to Ukrainian nuclear plants. Russia launched a combined strike of more than 230 drones and missiles that targeted power substations in late August.
“The problem is how much they launch at once,” Galushchenko said. “It’s a challenge to defend against.”
While Ukraine isn’t speaking directly with Russia, the government has asked third countries to intercede on its behalf over the issue of nuclear safety. “We have communicated to all partners,” Galushchenko said, referring to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Kyiv last month.
“People are not aware of the risks that we see here,” Galushchenko said. “The consequences could be dramatic and awful, should they attack again and again. The situation would impact wider than the border of Ukraine or Russia and pose wider challenges for Europe.”
--With assistance from Greg Sullivan.
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