Rafael Grossi, director general at the International Atomic Energy Agency, spoke after visiting the nuclear plant in Russia’s western Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces broke across the border three weeks ago and Russian troops are still fighting to stop the advance.
“The danger or possibility of a nuclear accident has emerged near here,” Grossi told reporters.
“We see the plant still operating,” he said. “When a plant is operating, the temperature is much higher, and if there was the case of an impact or something that could affect it, there would be serious consequences.”
President Vladimir Putin accused Ukraine last week of trying to attack the Kursk plant, which has four Soviet graphite-moderated RBMK-1000 reactors - the same design as those at the Chernobyl nuclear plant that in 1986 became the scene of the world’s worst civilian nuclear disaster.
“I was informed about the impact of drones. I was shown some of the remnants of those and signs of the impact they had,” Grossi said, without saying who was responsible.
Grossi said the RBMK-type facility did not have the containment dome and protective structure that is typical of most current nuclear plants.
“This means that the core of the reactor containing nuclear material is protected just by a normal roof. This makes it extremely exposed and fragile, for example, to an artillery impact or a drone or a missile,” he said.
“So, this is why we believe that a nuclear power plant of this type, so close to a point of contact or a military front, is an extremely serious fact that we take very seriously.”
For much of the Russia-Ukraine war, Grossi's focus has been on the safety of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, where Russian forces took control in the first weeks of the fighting. Since then, each side has accused the other of shelling it.
Attention shifted to Kursk, a major Soviet-era station, after Ukraine launched its incursion three weeks ago. Fighting has taken place within about 40 km (25 miles) of the facility.
Of the plant's four reactors, two older ones have been shut down and one was disconnected from the grid on Sunday for maintenance, leaving one still operational. Two more are under construction.
Grossi said it would be an exaggeration to equate Kursk with Chernobyl, where an accident caused an explosion that spewed a radioactive cloud over parts of eastern Europe.
“But this is the same type of reactor, and there is no specific protection. And this is very, very important. If there is an impact on the core, the material is there, and the consequences could be extremely serious.”
Grossi said the purpose of his visit was to draw the world’s attention to the situation and to say that “basically, never, ever, must or should a nuclear power plant be attacked in any way.”
