The UN nuclear inspection team, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have found “explosives” outside of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant.
The United Nations IAEA inspectors said that they had found “anti-personnel mines” at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear facility which could easily turn Europe in radiation zone if it were to explode.
Fears are growing at the nuclear facility after the mines were found in the “buffer zone between the site’s internal and external perimeter barriers.”
Director General of the IAEA Rafael Mariano Grossi said. “As I have reported earlier, the IAEA has been aware of the previous placement of mines outside the site perimeter and also at particular places inside.
Read more on Russia-Ukraine war:
Lukashenko tells Putin battle hardened Wagner fighters ‘want to go west’ and push across the NATO border to attack Poland
Ryanair will allow a ‘small number of flights’ to war torn Ukraine by ‘the end of this year’ for ‘less than €20’
Bulgaria to stop Putin using a vital port and will join US in providing ‘serious support’ to Ukraine’s counteroffensive
“Our team has raised this specific finding with the plant and they have been told that it is a military decision, and in an area controlled by military.”
He added, “But having such explosives on the site is inconsistent with the IAEA safety standards and nuclear security guidance and creates additional psychological pressure on plant staff – even if the IAEA’s initial assessment based on its own observations and the plant’s clarifications is that any detonation of these mines should not affect the site’s nuclear safety and security systems.”
Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, Britain’s pre-eminent chemical weapons specialist, issued a grim warning.
He told Express.co.uk, “there is no reason to have anti-personnel mines with Zaporizhzhia unless you intend to fight there.”
de Bretton-Gordon added, “What the IAEA have not been able to do is get inside the reactors to inspect them.
“So I suppose it begs the question if the Russians are prepared to put mines on the outside, what is on the inside?
“The fundamental thing is that this is the second largest nuclear power station in the world, there should be no mines within 20-30 miles of it.
“Why are the Russians so determined to hang on to this place? The only advantage it would have would be to use it as some sort of weapon, be it an area they know Ukrainians can’t go through or other means.”
He then warned, “There seems to be no limit to what Putin and his people are prepared to do.
“If you’re prepared to blow up a dam to create the greatest environmental disaster Europe’s seen since Chernobyl, it strikes me that blowing up a nuclear power station is of the same order.”
Leave a Comment