A drone explosion at a bus stop used by workers at the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has turned personnel movement into the latest security threat facing Europe’s largest nuclear facility, killing one person and leaving 15 others injured while causing no reported damage to nuclear safety systems.
The blast occurred around 6 a.m. Tuesday and caused 16 casualties among plant staff and subcontractors, including three people who were seriously injured, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency as reported by Reuters.
The IAEA said the plant’s director called it the “worst event the plant has faced.” The agency separately said it had been informed of additional attacks in the plant’s industrial area, although no nuclear safety or security damage was reported.
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The IAEA has not identified who launched the drone.
A month earlier, the IAEA reported that Zaporizhzhia had experienced its 22nd complete loss of off-site electricity since the war began. Ten of those outages had occurred during the preceding three months.
During the July 14 outage, all 19 available emergency diesel generators automatically started to supply electricity for essential functions, including reactor cooling. The plant at the time had only one available off-site power line, compared with 10 before the conflict.
Personnel have also increasingly been caught in nearby drone activity.
The IAEA said several drone attacks in Enerhodar, where many plant employees live, caused casualties among workers and subcontractors on July 12. A staff transportation vehicle was then targeted on July 14, although no injuries were reported in that incident.
Russia seized Zaporizhzhia during the opening weeks of its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The facility has six reactors and remains the largest nuclear power station in Europe.
Russia and Ukraine have repeatedly accused each other of military actions around the site.
IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi called for attacks targeting nuclear plants and their personnel to stop, warning that they create “great risks to nuclear safety and security during the conflict.”
