IAEA: 'No immediate risk' to nuclear safety at Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported on June 6 that it was closely monitoring the situation at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant after Russia blew up the Kakhovka dam, adding that there is "no immediate nuclear safety risk at the plant."
Russian forces destroyed the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant’s dam across the Dnipro River on the morning of June 6, sparking a large-scale humanitarian and environmental disaster across southern Ukraine.
The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, which has been under Russian occupation since March 2022, relies on water from the reservoir to provide power for its turbine condensers. Russian forces have used the plant as a military base to launch repeated attacks on Ukrainian territory.
In early May, IAEA officials warned that the situation at the plant was "increasingly unpredictable and potentially dangerous" due to the frequency of shelling nearby.
Around 16,000 people's homes in Kherson Oblast are located in "critical risk" zones for flooding after Russian forces blew up the Kakhovka dam, according to Kherson Oblast Governor Oleksandr Prokudin.
The Interior Ministry reported that 885 people have been evacuated from Kherson Oblast as of 11:00 a.m. local time.
