The IAEA team based at Ukraine's Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) heard bursts of gunfire this morning, coinciding with a purported drone attack on the site's training centre, Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said.
It was the third time this year that the training centre, located just outside the site perimeter, was reportedly targeted by such an unmanned aerial vehicle.
The ZNPP told the IAEA team that the drone hit the roof of the training centre, without causing any casualties or major damage. It was not immediately known whether the drone had directly struck the building or whether it crashed on the structure after being shot down, the ZNPP said.
The IAEA staff members heard the gunfire shortly before 10am local time, but it was not clear if this observation was connected to the drone.
The IAEA team requested to visit the training centre, as it was able to do following the previous such incident that occurred in April. However, on this occasion permission has not yet been granted.
"These reported drone incidents are very concerning, as they could pose a direct threat to nuclear safety and security. To put it simply: there are too many drones flying near nuclear sites, not just the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant. It should stop immediately," Director General Grossi said.
In February, a drone severely damaged the New Safe Confinement (NSC) at the Chornobyl plant in northern Ukraine, built to prevent any radioactive release from the reactor unit 4 destroyed in the 1986 accident and to protect it from external hazards.
In mid-April, a drone was reportedly shot down and crashed near the ZNPP's training centre, just over three months after another reported drone attack on the same centre.
Ukraine's operating nuclear power plants (NPPs) - Khmelnytskyy, Rivne and South Ukraine - also regularly report of drones being detected near the respective sites. Last Friday, the IAEA team at the South Ukraine NPP was informed that drones were observed as close as 2km from the site and the team reported hearing anti-aircraft fire from their hotel. The same night, drones were reported to have been observed transiting through the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone.
