Ever since Russia began its war against Ukraine, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna has been warning of the dangers looming if nuclear facilities in the country are directly or indirectly affected.

Never before, said IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi, has there been an armed conflict in a country with such a well-developed nuclear program.

On Thursday, Grossi traveled to Antalya to take the opportunity of the Russian-Ukrainian foreign ministers' meeting there to discuss his push for a nuclear protection agreement.

Stephen Lowenstein

Political correspondent based in Vienna.

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A total of 15 pressurized water reactors are in operation at four locations in Ukraine.

They are distributed all around the country: Zaporizhia, Southern Ukraine, Rivne, Khmelnytskyi.

They produce more than half of the electricity consumed in the country during peacetime.

The best-known location is Chernobyl, in Unit 4 of which the total catastrophe of core meltdown and graphite fire occurred in 1986.

The three other reactors on the heavily contaminated site ran until the 1990s, although they were built much earlier. The last one was shut down in 2000.

However, both the decommissioned reactors, especially Unit 4, which is surrounded by a concrete "sarcophagus" with a ventilated double shell, and the fuel rod stores still require operation with currently 210 people (including plant security).

Not bombed the power plant

Chernobyl was captured in the first days of the war by Russian forces advancing from Belarus, it was on their way to Kyiv.

Since last week, Russian soldiers have also been controlling the site of the Zaporizhia power plant, with its six reactors the largest not only in the country but in all of Europe.

In the meantime, the military have also taken control of the reactor's control room.

The IAEA notes with concern that the engineers are not able to determine more or less electricity during operation of the reactors, whether they are started up or shut down, and that this contradicts international standards for safety in nuclear power plants.

The fact that hostilities also took place in Zaporizhia (the power plant; the town of the same name is 60 kilometers away) caused an administrative building to catch fire, which has caused great concern.

However, it was not as the government in Kyiv presented it that the Russians had bombed the power plant or even a reactor.

Apparently, Ukrainian security forces exchanged gunfire with the Russians at night.

It is unclear whether the building caught fire from a lighting cartridge or something else.

Nevertheless, IAEA boss Grossi warned: "That was close." Something like that shouldn't happen again.

The news that the power supply for Chernobyl has now been interrupted has attracted particular attention.

The Ukrainian authorities said that the overhead lines had to be shut down because of damage caused by the fighting.

There is a risk that the fuel elements can no longer be cooled and radioactivity could escape.

The IAEA later clarified that the power outage had no critical consequences for safety.

On Thursday afternoon, the Russian Ministry of Energy announced that specialists from Belarus had restored the power supply.

Ukraine is aware of attention

Georg Steinhauser from the Institute for Radioecology and Radiation Protection at the Leibniz University in Hanover sees the main problem as the loss of state control over a nuclear power plant.

"We're not used to that.

The fact that the authorities and the operating company can no longer reach the entire workforce, or at best via a private mobile phone, is very unusual and also questionable.”