IAEA to inspect Ukraine sites for ‘dirty bomb’ evidence
The UN nuclear watchdog will be sending inspectors in the coming days to two Ukrainian nuclear sites at Kyiv’s request after Russia repeatedly accused Ukraine of plotting to detonate a “dirty bomb.”
The International Atomic Energy Agency made the announcement Monday, after a senior Russian official stated without offering any evidence that two institutes in Ukraine were preparing to produce an explosive laced with nuclear material — a claim Kyiv denies.
“The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is aware of statements made by the Russian Federation on Sunday about alleged activities at two nuclear locations in Ukraine,” the IAEA said in a statement, adding that both were already subject to its inspections.
“The IAEA is preparing to visit the locations in the coming days. The purpose of the safeguards visits is to detect any possible undeclared nuclear activities and material,” it added.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted earlier in the day that he had spoken to IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi and urged him to “send experts to peaceful facilities in Ukraine which Russia deceitfully claims to be developing a ‘dirty bomb.’ He agreed.”
Russian media quoted Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, head of Russia’s nuclear, biological and chemical protection troops, as telling a briefing: “According to the information we have, two organizations in Ukraine are under concrete instructions to create a so-called dirty bomb.”
Russia’s state news agency RIA had earlier identified what it said were the two sites involved in the operation — the Eastern Mineral Enrichment Plant in central Dnipropetrovsk region and the Institute for Nuclear Research in Kyiv.
The IAEA statement did not name either facility. But it quoted Grossi as saying that the agency had “inspected one of these locations one month ago and all our findings were consistent with Ukraine’s safeguards declarations.
“No undeclared nuclear activities or material were found there.”
On Tuesday, Energoatom, the Ukrainian state enterprise that operates the country’s four nuclear power plants, said Russian forces have carried out secret construction work over the last week at the occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine.
Russian officers controlling the area won’t give access to Ukrainian staff running the plant or monitors from the IAEA that would allow them to see what they are doing, Energoatom said in a statement.
Energoatom said it “assumes … (the Russians) are preparing a terrorist act using nuclear materials and radioactive waste stored at (the plant).”
It said there were 174 containers at the plant’s dry spent fuel storage facility, each of them containing 24 assemblies of spent nuclear fuel.
“Destruction of these containers as a result of explosion will lead to a radiation accident and radiation contamination of several hundred square kilometers (miles) of the adjacent territory,” the company said.
News of the looming IAEA inspections comes after senior Russian officials, led by Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, called their American, British and French counterparts Sunday and Monday to allege that Ukrainians were planning a “provocation” involving a “dirty bomb.”
Britain, France and the US together rejected that unsubstantiated claim as “transparently false.”
Ukraine also dismissed Moscow’s claim as an attempt to distract attention from the Kremlin’s own alleged plans to detonate a “dirty bomb.”
“If Russia calls and says that Ukraine is allegedly preparing something, it means one thing: Russia has already prepared all this,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a recent address.
The Kremlin on Tuesday doubled down on its unsupported claim, insisting that its warning should be taken seriously and criticizing Western nations for shrugging it off.
The dismissal of Moscow’s accusation is “unacceptable in view of the seriousness of the danger that we have talked about,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Speaking during a conference call with reporters, Peskov added: “We again emphasize the grave danger posed by the plans hatched by the Ukrainians.”
The White House again underscored that the Russian allegations were false.
“It’s just not true. We know it’s not true,” said John Kirby, a spokesman for the National Security Council. “In the past, the Russians have, on occasion, blamed others for things that they were planning to do.”
With Post wires
