As Russia targets Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, the head of the UN nuclear watchdog has emphasized the need to safeguard the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, Europe’s largest, to prevent a nuclear disaster.

“Until we have this plant protected, the possibility of the nuclear catastrophe is there,” Rafael Mariano Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said in an interview with CBS News that aired on Sunday.

Russia’s invasion has endangered Ukraine’s nuclear power facilities, which rely on external power to cool their reactors.

At Zaporizhzhia, those power lines have been repeatedly damaged in the fighting, forcing operators of the plant to turn occasionally to diesel generators to run the cooling systems.

Grossi said that resorting to diesel generators was an unsustainable practice given how frequently external power is lost.

“You don’t want the biggest nuclear power plant in Europe, one of the biggest in the world, to be cooled with — basically an emergency system which is dependent on fuel,” he said.

“Because when your generators are out of whatever you put in it to make them work, then what happens? Then you have a meltdown. Then you have a big radiological nuclear emergency or an accident, and this is what we are trying to prevent.”

In October, Grossi spoke with both President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, hoping to get both sides to agree to establish a demilitarised zone around Zaporizhzhia.

He has been calling for similar measures since leading a team of inspectors to the facility in August.

No agreement has been reached.

Last week, in one of the biggest and broadest attacks since the start of the war in February, Russia in one day fired more than 100 missiles at Ukraine, most of which was shot down by Ukrainian forces.

The rest struck key energy infrastructure, plunging nearly a quarter of the country into darkness.

Ukraine has warned that Russia will not relent in its attacks on infrastructure, making it harder for Ukrainians to stay warm as winter approaches.

New York Times News Service