Nuclear Watchdog to Name Culprit in Event of Ukraine Accident
(Bloomberg) -- International monitors stationed at a Russian-occupied nuclear power plant in Ukraine said they’d be able to assign blame for any potential accident resulting in a radiological emergency.
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The International Atomic Energy Agency has so far shied away from pointing fingers over drone attacks near the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in southeastern Ukraine, but signaled it would take a more active stance in determining who is liable for damages in the event of a disaster.
“The experts there would be in a position to say very, very clearly whether an event is directly the origin of an external cause or by an internal process,” IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said Monday at a press briefing.
Even though monitors have been stationed at Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant for over two years, the IAEA has been slow to assign responsibility for attacks that have threatened the facility. Russia and Ukraine have traded blame for strikes in the wake of the Kremlin’s takeover of the plant shortly after the war began in February 2022.
The distinction between an attack or operator negligence which leads to an uncontrolled release of radiation carries weight in international treaties.
Whereas “a nuclear incident directly due to an act of armed conflict” wouldn’t necessarily trigger a payout, the operator of the plant could be held responsible for a mistake under the Vienna Convention.
Potential monetary damages would be difficult to determine because while the Zaporizhzhia plant still formally belongs to Ukraine, it is being operated by the Kremlin-controlled nuclear giant Rosatom Corp.
“There would be issues of ownership and legal debates,” Grossi said. “This is a Ukrainian facility, but of course there, there’s another operator that has a different view on that. We would have a very prolonged and most probably very difficult legal debate.”
In the meantime, Grossi said he’s received assurances that all six Zaporizhzhia reactors will remain shut down for as long the conflict lasts, a promise that diminishes the probability of a serious atomic accident.
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