NFLAs call upon UN Secretary General to prevent catastrophe at Ukraine nuclear plant

Posted: 16th September 2022

NFLAs call upon UN Secretary General to prevent catastrophe at Ukraine nuclear plant

Fearing the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant could be turned into a ‘dirty bomb’ by intention or accident if shelling continues against the facility there, NFLA Steering Committee Chair Councillor David Blackburn has written to the UN Secretary General and the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency urging them to press the warring factions in Ukraine from taking hostile action there.

Under the 1949 Geneva Convention, governments are under an international obligation not to target nuclear installations ‘if such attack may cause the release of dangerous forces and consequent severe losses among the civilian population’ and they are also obliged not to use military forces based in such installations to carry out offensive action against their enemies. Both Russia and Ukraine have accused their opponents of shelling or carrying out missile attacks against the complex, and Russia, which occupies the complex with its military forces, has also been accused by the Western media and Ukrainian Government of using the complex as a base from which it has conducted offensive operations. 

Now the NFLA wants to see the United Nations and IAEA step up the pressure on both nations to observe their obligations under the Geneva Convention, fearing a military strike against a critical safety feature, such as cooling ponds or the cables supplying electricity to maintain the plant, could lead to a release of radioactive contamination.

Commenting Councillor David Blackburn said:  “At Zaporizhzhia, we have seen the fear of the anti-nuclear community that a nuclear power complex could become weaponised realised. The Geneva Convention made clear that nuclear power plants are off-limits when it comes to war, and nuclear plants are not built to withstand damage from modern weapons, but we have seen in this conflict they have been targeted. Every day so long as military action takes place against, from, or in the vicinity of this plant, there is the chance that a military strike could lead to a nuclear accident. It must stop – and only pressure from the international community can do this.”

This media release also appears on the NFLA website at https://www.nuclearpolicy.info/news/nflas-call-upon-un-secretary-general-to-prevent-catastrophe-at-ukraine-nuclear-plant/

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For more information, please contact NFLA Secretary Richard Outram by email on [email protected] or telephone 07583 097793

The letter sent to the UN Secretary General and the IAEA Directotr General reads:

Mr António Guterres,                                                                                                     12 Sept 2022

Secretary-General,

United Nations,

New York

Via email: [email protected]

Mr Rafael Mariano Grossi,

Director-General,

International Atomic Energy Agency,

Vienna 

Via contact form on IAEA website

Dear Mr. Secretary General Guterres and Director-General Grossi,

I am writing to you as Chair on behalf of the UK/Ireland Nuclear Free Local Authorities.

The world looks on at the unfolding situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant complex with grave concern.

It is clear from the recent incidents involving the shelling of facilities at the complex that a serious accident involving a significant release of radioactive materials has so far been averted only by good fortune, and that there remains still, whilst fighting continues between Russian and Ukrainian forces, the possibility that a military strike against a critical safety component could in effect turn the plant into a ‘dirty bomb’ carrying with it the nuclear contamination of much of Eastern Europe.

One particular concern is the potential loss of power necessary to maintain key reactor components and cooling functions. Power lines have already been hit and a total loss of power means reliance on time-limited diesel generation, a most precarious situation as we saw at Fukushima. This is one of several concerns identified in the recent IAEA report.

Nuclear civil reactors have never been designed to withstand a concerted military attack conducted with modern weapons. The war in Ukraine has demonstrated that they can be weaponised either by being wilfully targeted by any of the combatants – or by accident – with the most appalling outcome.

The potential consequences arising from a military strike by any future hostile power against civil nuclear facilities in the United Kingdom is one of many reasons why the UK/Ireland Nuclear Free Local Authorities remain opposed to the construction of any new civil nuclear plants and campaign for the early closure of existing ones. 

Russia and Ukraine already have existing international obligations under the 1949 Geneva Convention, Protocol 1, Article 56, not to target nuclear installations or to use military equipment based at such installations to launch offensive actions: 

Article 56 – Protection of works and installations containing dangerous forces

1. Works or installations containing dangerous forces, namely dams, dykes and nuclear electrical generating stations, shall not be made the object of attack, even where these objects are military objectives, if such attack may cause the release of dangerous forces and consequent severe losses among the civilian population. Other military objectives located at or in the vicinity of these works or installations shall not be made the object of attack if such attack may cause the release of dangerous forces from the works or installations and consequent severe losses among the civilian population.

However, the prohibition of attacks against ‘works or installations’ is caveated to situations where these ‘works or installations’ are ‘not used in hostilities except for defensive actions necessary to respond to attacks against the protected works or installations and that their armament is limited to weapons capable only of repelling hostile action against the protected works or installations’.

https://www.icrc.org/en/doc/assets/files/other/icrc_002_0321.pdf

Mr Secretary-General and Mr Director General, we ask you to use every endeavour to draw the attention of Ministers in the Russian and Ukrainian Governments to these obligations, to ensure that offensive actions are neither directed against or directed from the complex and to bend every effort to ensure that both governments henceforth observe them – for the sake of the world.

Yours sincerely,

Councillor David Blackburn, Chair of the NFLA Steering Committee