Kyiv, Ukraine –
Ukraine’s nuclear power operator on Tuesday offered what it suggested as clues as to what may be behind Russia’s claims that Kyiv forces are planning a “provocation” involving a radioactive device – a so-called saying dirty bomb.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu made the claim to his British, French, Turkish and American counterparts over the weekend. Britain, France and the United States dismissed it outright as “false transparency”.
Ukraine also dismissed Moscow’s claim as an attempt to distract from the Kremlin’s own alleged plans to detonate a dirty bomb, which uses explosives to disperse radioactive waste in a bid to spread terror.
Energoatom, Ukraine’s nuclear operator, said Russian forces had carried out secret construction work over the past week at Ukraine’s occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
Russian officers occupying the area will not let Ukrainian personnel who run Europe’s largest nuclear power plant or UN atomic energy watchdog monitors see what they are doing, Energoatom said in a statement. press release released on Tuesday.
Energoatom said it “assumes … (the Russians) are planning a terrorist act using nuclear materials and radioactive waste stored at (the plant).” He said there were 174 containers in the plant’s spent fuel dry storage facility, each containing 24 spent nuclear fuel assemblies.
“The destruction of these containers following an explosion will lead to a radiological accident and radioactive contamination of several hundred square kilometers (miles) of the adjacent territory,” the company said.
He asked the International Atomic Energy Agency to assess what was happening.
The White House again stressed on Monday that the Russian allegations were false.
“That’s just not true. We know that’s not true,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said. “In the past, Russians have on occasion blamed others for things they intended to do.”
Dirty bombs lack the devastating destruction of a nuclear explosion, but could expose large areas to radioactive contamination.