Operators at a Russian-occupied nuclear reactor in Ukraine may soon have to draw on their last line of defense to prevent a nuclear accident, according to the most dire warning yet issued by International Atomic Energy Agency monitors.
Continued shelling around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has cut power cables and rendered layers of safety-backup systems ineffective, the U.N. agency said in a lengthy statement from director-general Rafael Mariano Grossi.
Now, power systems in the nearby city of Enerhodar, where most of the plant operators live, have been destroyed by shelling, resulting in a complete loss of power, water and sewage operations.
