The Biden administration said Monday it supported a “controlled shutdown” of Europe’s largest nuclear plant in the middle of the Russia-Ukraine war, saying it “would be the safest and least risky option in the near-term.”
National Security Council communications coordinator John Kirby told reporters that the administration was in favor of establishing a demilitarized zone around the plant located in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, which is at risk of getting severely damaged by missiles, ABC News reported.
The plant, which has been under Russian control since March, has already been damaged during the war and was disconnected from power for the first time Thursday. It was also impacted earlier in August, after it was hit by shelling which damaged three radiation censors and an electrical power line, according to Ukrainian reports.
United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres issued a warning last week about the possible implications of damaging the plant, speaking out against “nuclear saber-rattling,” at this moment of “maximum danger for our world.”
“Humanity’s future is in our hands,” he added, warning for the need of diplomacy to “save succeeding generations from the scourge of war.”
PHOTOS: Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant
Kirby also endorsed a plan by the International Atomic Energy Agency to visit the plant.
“We fully support the International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Grossi’s expert mission to the power plant, and we are glad that the team is on its way to ascertain the safety, security and safeguards of the systems there, as well as to evaluate the staff’s working conditions,” he said, according to the outlet. “Russia should ensure safe, unfettered access for these independent inspectors.”
The director of the IAEA warned that “every principle of nuclear safety has been violated” at the plant, and “what is at stake is extremely serious and extremely grave and dangerous.”
The plant was under shelling Thursday, Friday and Saturday but there was no increase in radiation levels, Ukrainian officials told the IAEA.
IAEA are currently traveling to Zaporizhzhia to review “the physical damage to the facilities, determine the functionality of the main and backup safety and security systems, and evaluate the working conditions of the control room staff,” the organization said in a statement.