Russia's Rosatom chief says risks ‘very high’ around Kursk Nuclear Power Plant

ISTANBUL

The director general of the Russian State Atomic Energy Corporation (Rosatom) said Tuesday that risks are “very high” surrounding the safety of the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant.

“There are landings (over the Kursk region), air raid sirens are constantly sounding, and, of course, the risks have not decreased,” Alexey Likhachev said in an interview with Russian journalist Pavel Zarubin in the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar. A portion of the interview was shared on Zarubin’s Telegram account. “I still assess the risks as very high.”

Expressing that there have been no strikes on the station “in recent days,” Likhachev claimed that a large number of missiles were shot down as they approached the facility.

Likhachev noted that two of the plant’s reactor units were decommissioned and said a fourth reactor unit is undergoing scheduled maintenance, while the third is fully operational.

He said he believes the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi is “very concerned” about the situation in the region.

“Of course, in normal communication, as they say, without television cameras, he (Grossi) is perfectly aware of what is happening and where the main threat comes from,” he said, adding he hopes that Grossi will “convey his point of view to the current Kyiv authorities."

“In this case, we can only hope for his political courage and determination to prevent an accident, to prevent a tragedy. We cannot allow this,” he said.

Russia claimed last month that Ukraine launched a drone attack on the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant. The drone was shot down near a spent nuclear fuel storage facility.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova condemned the attack as "an act of nuclear terrorism that demands immediate action from the IAEA."

Ukrainian authorities have not commented on Moscow’s claims, and independent verification of the claim is difficult due to the ongoing war.

The Kursk Nuclear Power Plant, located in the border region with the same name, where Ukraine launched an operation Aug. 6, is one of Russia’s largest nuclear power plants and plays a vital role in the country’s energy system, providing electricity to 19 regions within the Central Federal District.

The plant is 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) from the town of Kurchatov, almost 60 kilometers from the Ukrainian border.